Jakarta Chinatown Afternoon Walk: Glodok's Temples, Markets and Tea Houses

Glodok grew up outside the walls of Dutch Batavia in the 1700s, and it is still the most characterful corner of Jakarta. On this afternoon walk your guide leads you through the lanes of Petak Sembilan, where stalls sell herbs, dried goods and temple offerings, to the Vihara Dharma Bhakti, a temple founded in the mid-1600s and carefully rebuilt after a fire, and to the Santa Maria de Fatima church, a Catholic church housed in a Chinese-style building.

Along the way you stop for tea and snacks in a heritage tea house and hear how Jakarta’s Chinese-Indonesian community has shaped the city’s trade, food and festivals. The walk ends near Kota Tua, the old Dutch town around Fatahillah Square, which is lively in the late afternoon.