Abu Dhabi City

Abu Dhabi is the capital of the Emirate of the same name. This is equal to 85% of the entire area of the United Arab Emirates. Besides this Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates as well, Although Dubai is much more popular and more well known.

Abu Dhabi has approximately 1.000.000 inhabitants, 80% expatriates, most of them from India, Pakistan, the Philippines and sorrounding arab countries. In addition to that there are a lot expatriates from European and American countries.

The town is located on an island and is connected to the mainland by two bridges (Maqta Bridge and Mussafah Bridge). A third bridge is under construction and scheduled to be open in 2007. On the end of the island to the Persian-Arabian Gulf is the most interesting street Abu Dhabis: The Corniche. This area was claimed during the last years by land reclamation and because of this the street is now a lot of further away from the first houses. Unfortunately there is not anymore a beach on this central place (starting 2008 there is a beach again). Opposite the Corniche is Lulu Island, a man-made island where maybe the next city beach will be constructed (yes, was done in late 2007). As usual, you never know exactly when this will happen.

At the northern end of the Corniche within the first kilometre off the water you will find the so called "City Center" with most of Abu Dhabi's office buildings. If you are looking for a the real nightlife then you are wrong if you try to find it here. The complete nightlife including all restaurants and pubs with an alcohol licence is connected to the numerous 4-5 star hotels in town. But there you can find some hotels with more then 14 different restaurants and other pubs and clubs.

Until the 1960's Abu Dhabi was only a small village with one fort out of stone and some hats out of palm leaves. There was no electricity and no water supply. If you look now to this modern city with all amenities you can imagine what the people have created over the last 40 years. And this progress and all the developments are build on oil. Abu Dhabi claims to have 10% of the entire world oil reserves. Sometimes this knowledge leads to the fact that the people are a little bit sluggish. Dubai was a little bit more active to build up a replacement for their lesser oil reserves and they created a tourist hub for a lot of western people. That's one of the reasons why Dubai is better known then Abu Dhabi. To catch up with Dubai and their famous Burj al Arab Hotel, Abu Dhabi created the Emirates Palace Hotel. At the beginning this hotel was planned as a convention center for the meetings of the member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), but then the concept was reviewed and changed to be one of the most luxurous hotels in the world. Now it is managed by the Germany-based hotel company Kempinski who takes care to fill the more then 1 km long hotel with guests and guarantees the high standard.

Abu Dhabi is not just a city to have a great holiday, there is also a lot of professional business going on. On the construction sites mostly people from India and the Philippines are working; in the government and in the hospitals a lot of Arabic expats from Syria, Egypt, Jordan and other countries are working. In the branches of the western companies also a lot of western expats are present.

For a long time it was not necessary for the Emiratis to work because of the big prosperity. The education was not that good and this was one of the reasons that they could not work in the trade and industry. Most of the Emiratis work with governmental organisations but this will change in the future. There are big efforts to provide better education to the Locals and the companies are forced to employ a certain percentage of Emiratis.