Palembang is the capital of South Sumatra province in Indonesia. The city proper covers 369.22 square kilometres of land on both banks of lower Musi River on eastern lowland of southern Sumatra with an estimated population of 1,708,413 in 2014, making it the second most populous city on Sumatra after Medan, the ninth most populous city in Indonesia and the nineteenth most populous city in Southeast Asia. The metropolitan area of Greater Palembang also comprises part of regencies around the city such as Banyuasin, Ogan Ilir, and Ogan Komering Ilir, with total estimated population of more than 3.5 million in 2015.Palembang is the oldest city in Indonesia and also one of the oldest cities in the Malay Archipelago and Southeast Asia. Palembang was once the capital city of Srivijaya, a powerful Malay kingdom which ruled many parts of the western archipelago and controlled many maritime trade routes especially in the Strait of Malacca. The earliest evidence of the city existence dates from the 7th century; a Chinese monk, Yijing, wrote that he visited Srivijaya in the year 671 for 6 months. The first inscription in which Srivijaya was mentioned, Kedukan Bukit Inscription which was found in the city also dates from the 7th century. Palembang was incorporated into the Dutch East Indies in 1825 after the abolishment of the Palembang Sultanate. Palembang is chartered as a city in 1 April 1906.Among many historical landmarks together with its rich culture and culinary, Palembang is mostly known by many Indonesian for its main landmark, Ampera Bridge and its authentic food, pempek. The city is also the host city of 2011 Southeast Asian Games and 2018 Asian Games along with Jakarta. First light rail system in Indonesia will be operated in Palembang in July 2018. Despite these, Palembang is still not among the most favorite tourist destinations in Indonesia. The city is also not well known in the world and has poor number of foreign tourists as the city only attracts 9.850 foreign tourists from 2.011.417 tourists who visited Palembang in 2017. Traffic jam, flood, slums, pollution, and peatland fire are the most well known problems found in Palembang.
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