Traffic in Kesawan, Medan, 1900's

Photo: Carl Josef Kleingrothe/National Gallery of Australia

The Kesawan area is one of the oldest areas in Medan. Kesawan is famous as a Chinatown area which incidentally is a business center. Chinese coolies who were brought in to work in mining and plantations, as well as ordinary Chinese immigrants and many of their descendants live here. Kesawan in Medan ia like Glodok in Batavia and Suryakencana in Bogor.

And as a business center, Kesawan is filled with Chinese shops. In 1889 there was a big fire in Kesawan which scorched the wooden buildings there. After that, people began to build two-story shop houses, some of which are still existing today.

The photo above is the traffic in the Kesawan area around the 1900s. There were no motorized vehicles, only carts drawn by buffalo and horses passing by. You can see two-story shop houses along the street, indicating a busy business district. There are also street lights that were still fueled by oil or gas.