Nowadays, the city of Dubai is known for its billionaire visitors and its eclectic mix of old Arabian culture with new Western ideas and buildings. It was not until modern times that the city of Dubai became known for these two things. In the early to mid 1990s, the government of Dubai hired a lead geotechnical consultant, who then began to select a group of other geotechnical consultants to begin work on restructuring the city itself from an old Arab city to a new, partly westernized city. This Arabian land is continuing to grow at a rapid rate and it shows no signs of stopping any time soon.
The city of Dubai is located on the coast of the Persian Gulf in the country which is now known as the United Arab Emirates. The government is a constitutional monarchy, which is the much like many countries in Europe. The area was known for ease of trade by the sea, especially, in recent years, of oil. However, this all has changed since the middle of the 90s.
Although still focused on oil trade, the city of Dubai began to also focus on tourism and build up their trade with wealthy nations. In the mid 1990s the government of Dubai decided to start making some very radical changes to the city. The Burj Dubai skyscraper, which is currently still under construction, is now the tallest building in the world and to some it is a symbol that the city has begun to adopt some aspects of western culture. The city also boasts a winter-themed indoor ski-resort where tourists and locals are able to go to play in the snow by building snowmen and skiing or snowboarding down large hills. The city also revamped its local transportation to include newer, more luxurious buses and subways and to have more cab service. The city has also modeled a beach resort after the famous Atlantis resort which is located in the United States. In Dubai, the resort is called Atlantis The Palm because it was built at the top of land that looks like a palm tree. The resort is one of the most posh vacation spots in the world. The city is also now home to a famous tennis tournament and has a wide variety of visitors every year from the tennis community and other extremely wealthy individuals. In fact, a mini tennis match was played on a grass covered helipad at the top of a luxury, sail-shaped hotel located 692 feet in the air.
While Dubai officials have focused on attempting to revamp the city and attempting to make some changes towards westernization, the old culture of Dubai has not been lost. Camel herders can still be seen herding camels while expensive automobiles speed by on the highway. And, the social culture of the area is still very much the same, even though the buildings and infrastructure may have changed.
It is really interesting to watch such a city that wants to mix their unique social culture with some of the elements of western culture. The city of Dubai is one of the first to try to make such a radical change to the city, while still attempting to maintain its original social culture. It will be extremely exicitng to see how the city grows over the next few decades because this city does not plan on stopping its renovations any time soon.
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