Walking Through Yogyakarta’s Historic Chinatown

Itinerary Time: Approx. 4 Hours

Step into Kampoeng Ketandan, Yogyakarta’s historic Chinatown, and uncover the layers of a neighbourhood shaped by trade, migration and cultural exchange.

Walk through its narrow streets while reading the architecture of Ketandan’s historic shophouses, from Chinese influenced façades, roofs and courtyards to the way homes, businesses and social life once existed under the same roof. Discover how the neighbourhood developed as one of Yogyakarta’s important commercial quarters and how its Chinese community became part of the city’s economic and cultural life.

The journey also reveals a lesser known chapter of Ketandan’s past: the opium trade. Visit buildings associated with former opium stalls and discover surviving objects once used in the preparation and consumption of opium, opening a window into the social and commercial networks surrounding the trade during the colonial period.

We also trace the arrival and development of the becak, exploring how this iconic form of urban transport became connected with the movement of people, goods and street commerce in Yogyakarta.

But Ketandan’s history is not only found in its buildings. Step inside long established noodle and bread makers and a traditional Chinese medicine shop to discover businesses and knowledge passed through generations since the early twentieth century.

The walk ends with something you can make yourself: learn to prepare a traditional Peranakan pastry, bringing together Chinese heritage and local Javanese influences through taste, technique and family knowledge.

Walk the streets. Read the architecture. Taste the heritage. Discover the stories that ordinary shopfronts rarely reveal.