Why Dubai is the second largest emirate in the UAE

In 1833, the ancestors of the Maktoum family, the ruling family of today's Dubai, led a tribe of about 800 people to live at the mouth of the Dubai Creek estuary. The legendary Dubai Creek has helped Dubai grow from a small fishing village and a small wharf salvaging pearls to the world's fastest growing international port.

Dubai is bordered by the Persian Gulf (Arabian Gulf) to the north, where the water meanders and ripples into the city of Dubai, forming Dubai Creek, which is more than 100 meters wide and more than 10 kilometers long. This bay divides Dubai into two parts, east and west, the eastern part is the old city of Deyil, and the western part is the new city of Park Dubai.

Dubai started to become a bustling port in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The largest commercial district in the entire Persian Gulf region emerged on the side of Old Town Deira near Dubai Creek, with more than 350 stores springing up in succession, and foreign tourists and merchants gathering. By the 1930s, Dubai's population had grown to 20,000, a quarter of whom were foreigners.

Taking off on 'black gold'

By the 1950s, the waterways of Dubai Creek began to silt up, perhaps due to the rapid increase in the number of ships, and Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, then Ruler of Dubai, decided to dredge the waterways to remove the silt. This was a costly, ambitious and visionary project, the immediate result of which was to increase the volume of cargo in Dubai Creek and ultimately strengthen Dubai's trade position.

The discovery of oil in 1966 gave Dubai a huge financial boost, and in the 1970s it became the second-largest emirate in the United Arab Emirates, free from British colonial rule.

Dubai's real growth began in the 1980s. Backed by a steady stream of oil revenues, Dubai's trade activities became increasingly prosperous, and the entire commercial trade flourished. Dubai has earned its name as the country's "trade capital" because it concentrates about 70 percent of the UAE's non-oil trade.

Today, Dubai has grown to become the financial, economic and trade center of the UAE, as well as the business and tourism hub of the entire Middle East region, with a population of more than 1.4 million people, 80 percent of whom are foreigners from more than 150 countries.

Achievements

Desert "City of Wonders"

The newspaper reported that Dubai is now synonymous with luxury. The asphalt roads, the endless stream of Mercedes-Benz BMW cars, skyscrapers, temples of different styles. Accompanied by green trees, grass into the lawn. If it weren't for the patch of unbuilt sand, if it weren't for the sand underneath the flowers and grass, it would be hard for people to believe that this is a miracle city built entirely in the middle of the desert.

For Dubai's world-record-hungry people, it seems there is nothing they can't do. Every tree planted here costs more than $3,000, and there are several of the world's most expensive hotels.

Tropical indoor ski resort

By the way What an amazing feeling it is to walk from the scorching desert straight into the world of snow and ice. People driving into Dubai City will see from afar a silver-gray, curved building about 30 stories high, which is Dubai's newest attraction, Ski Dubai.

By the end of last year, the Dubai Ski Resort, known as the "world's first indoor ski resort", opened successfully, and Dubai people who have never seen snow have found a good place to escape the summer heat. The ski resort can accommodate 1,500 people skiing at the same time, the ski resort covers an area of 22,500 square meters, the interior is divided into two areas of snow parks and ski trails.

The ski resort is said to be quite well-serviced. The entire ski area is paved with 600 tons of snow, and advanced temperature control equipment ensures that the temperature of the ski area is around minus 1 degree Celsius during the day, and falls to minus 9 degrees Celsius at night. The entire ski resort has five ski slopes of varying difficulty, the longest one is 400 meters long, with a drop of more than 20-story building heights, up to 62 meters, and a 90-meter-long ski sliding platform.

Dubai has long been known as a shopper's paradise for good value thanks to the government's strong policy of low import duties and no sales tax. In Dubai's biggest shopping malls, the world's famous brands are gathered, many of which are even cheaper than their origins, often attracting tourists from Europe and the United States to visit the city.

Besides the duty-free brands, Dubai's biggest attraction is its prestigious gold and spice markets.

Reclamation to build a "seven-star" hotel

The newspaper reported that strolling on the beach, a huge sailboat-shaped building far into the field of vision, that is, Dubai's landmark - the Burj Al Arab. As the world's tallest and most luxurious seven-star hotel, Burj Al Arab is the perfect crystallization of wealth, luxury, creativity, natural beauty, technology and many other elements. In the Red Sea and the desert, the 321-meter-high Burj Al Arab "came out of nowhere" from an artificial island, and the mirage-like scenery is like a dream.

From a distance, the hotel is also a painting: a tent-like white roof covers the yellow walls, and a group of Bedouin nomadic camping-style houses are set in the dunes in a staggered manner.

Inside the hotel, there is nothing but gold, with gold-plated decorations everywhere, which are said to have cost nearly 30 tons of gold alone.

18,000 U.S. dollars a night to live in the presidential suite is extremely luxurious: gold-plated furniture, movie theaters, special elevators, 780 square meters of space is golden everywhere, in fact, the Arabian Tower is unique also lies in that it is reclaimed: two and a half years to reclaim the Arabian Sea out of man-made islands, two and a half years for the construction of the building, 9,000 tons of steel and iron, 250 foundation piling columns into the 40-meter-deep sea below.

It is said that the highest star rating for hotels internationally is five-star, but the Burj Al Arab is called "seven-star" because the outside world believes that the luxury of the Burj Al Arab is far more than five-star.

Tradition meets modernity

Dubai, however, is an up-and-coming city that blends Arab, Western and South Asian cultures, and is also a mysterious kaleidoscope of new and old, East and West, and desert and modern urban features.

In Dubai's Old Town, where some traditional Arab homes have been preserved. The Dubai Municipality has designated protected areas, maintained and restored some of the buildings, and formed a centralized tour area along Dubai Creek, where tourists can visit and shop during the day, and take a boat ride in the evening to enjoy the night view on both sides of the river.

Dubai New District, on the other hand, is an exposition area of world architecture, where various styles of buildings live in harmony, showing the modernization of Dubai. In addition to the famous Burj Al Arab, Emirates Towers and Dubai Bay Club Tower, Dubai is going to build the world's tallest building, Burj Dubai.

However, Dubai's modernization has come at a heavy price. Its world-class services and facilities have attracted many people to the city in pursuit of a comfortable life, but today Dubai is plagued by serious traffic jams and residents are crying out for help.

Bryce Bryce, chief economic analyst at Standard Chartered Bank, said Dubai's economy grew 17 percent last year, but severe traffic jams have become one of the "growing pains" of the economy. Some analysts say the severe congestion on Dubai's streets for several hours a day could similarly dampen the local government's desire to establish itself as a global business center.

Policing

The safest place in the Middle East

By Staff Writers What makes Dubai such a haven for trade? Apparently, it has something to do with its location.

Dubai is located in the throat of the Persian Gulf, a choke point for East-West exchanges, and often serves as a center of economic activity in Europe and Asia. Today, Dubai is an important gateway not only to the Persian Gulf coastal region, but also to China, India, Central Asia, as well as Europe and the United States.

Together with the local government's timely guidance, Dubai has thus become the center of trade distribution in the Middle East, and its radiation has reached North Africa, the Middle East, Southern Europe and South Asia, West Asia and other regions, the population of the above regions amounted to more than 1.5 billion people, the consumption level of high, medium and low are available.

In addition, the Dubai government in attracting investment in the policy is extremely loose and free, such as: no foreign exchange control, free currency exchange, capital and profits can be 100% remittance back to their own countries; no need to pay business tax, income tax; the implementation of a low tax rate of 4% of the tariffs; import and export does not implement the restrictions on the quota of goods, and so on. The low tax rate and liberal policy naturally attracted businessmen from all over the world to invest and set up industries or do business.

Fighting and going to jail

In addition, Dubai is the safest place in the UAE and even the entire Middle East, where people can walk alone on the streets late at night without worrying about any security problems. It's all said to stem from a Dubai law that says: "Here, if you get into a fight, you go to jail, no matter who's right or who's wrong." It's this somewhat unsympathetic law that has fundamentally ensured security here, while making Dubai the most important trade and business center in the Middle East.

Ambition

100 billion dollars to build architectural marvel

The newspaper reported Booming Dubai has made no secret of its ambition to become the world's fastest-growing city. According to statistics, Dubai has spent as much as 100 billion U.S. dollars on construction projects in recent years, compared with 53 billion U.S. dollars for the reconstruction of the whole of Iraq, according to World Bank estimates.

Dubai is said to continue to build big, with a fifth of the world's cranes operating here and *** a quarter of a million construction workers on the job. One indicator of the fire here is the 148-page real estate advertisement spread in the local Monday edition of the Gulf News newspaper.

The ingenious Palm Island

Over the next few years, Dubai will be working on the world's tallest tower, the Dubai Maritime City, the Dubai Carpet Free Zone, the Dubai Auto Parts City, the Heavy Machinery and Truck City, the Dubai Silicon Valley, the Dubai Flower Center, the Dubai Healthcare City, the Dubai Textile City, and the Dubai International Media Publishing Free Zone. The most notable projects are to be found in the Palm Island Project and Dubai Paradise.

From a high altitude overlooking Dubai, UAE, you can vaguely see two huge palm trees floating in the azure sea. Carefully recognized, the palm trees are actually composed of a number of staggered, large and small islands. In addition to the palm trees, you can also see a map of the world outlined by 300 islands. This strange sight is not a work of nature, it is part of Dubai's ambitious artificial island program, the Palm Islands project.

The $14 billion project is expected to be completed by 2009. By then, the world's largest artificial island will be fully afloat.

The Palm Island Project, which consists of four island groups, including Palm Jumeirah, Palm Alishan, Palm Deira and World Island, plans to build 12,000 private homes and more than 10,000 condominiums, as well as more than 100 luxury hotels, and amenities such as ports, water theme parks, restaurants, shopping malls and dive sites.

Building Dubai Land

In addition, Dubai will build Dubai Land, the largest and most advanced large-scale tourist facility in the Middle East. "Dubailand" includes 45 main projects and 200 subsidiary projects, covering an area of 186 square kilometers, much larger than the territory of the European country Monaco. The completed Dubai Land will combine leisure, tourism, shopping, hotels and fitness, making it an international tourist destination that will help Dubai achieve its 2010 target of welcoming 15 million visitors.

The latest masterpiece of Dubai Land is the $1.5 billion Miracle Falcon City. The core idea of the Miracle Falcon City is to bring together the world's most famous monuments and attractions in one place, combining the world's ancient civilizations and modern architecture in an integrated development of tourism, commerce, residential and entertainment projects.

According to Moussa, chairman of the Falcon Miracle City project, the project will recreate several architectural wonders of the world, including the Great Wall of China, the pyramids of Egypt, the lighthouse of Alexandria, the Sky Garden of Ancient Babylon, the Taj Mahal in India, the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy and the Eiffel Tower in France.

In addition, Dubai will create the world's first underwater hotel, continue to expand its dominance of the world's most spectacular fleet of airliners, and has ambitions to become the world's foremost maritime commercial power.

Recently, Dubai World Ports acquired the global operations of the UK's Ironbound Steamship Group for $6.8 billion, gaining management control of six key U.S. ports, including the Port of New York, the Port of New Jersey, the Port of New Orleans, the Port of Miami, the Port of Philadelphia and the Port of Baltimore.