Dubai is one of seven emirates in the United Arab Emirates, and the largest by population though not by land — Abu Dhabi is about 85 per cent of the country’s territory and holds nearly all its oil.
The shape of it
Everything begins at the Creek, a saltwater inlet running fourteen kilometres inland. Deira is the north-eastern bank, Bur Dubai the south-western, and between them is the entire city as it existed until about 1970.
From there Dubai grew south-west along the coast in a strip. Sheikh Zayed Road is the spine — twelve lanes with the Red Line metro running above and beside it — and the districts hang off it in order: Downtown, Business Bay, Al Quoz, Jumeirah, Al Barsha, the Marina, JBR, Jebel Ali.
Inland is desert. The city is essentially one-dimensional and about fifty kilometres long, which is why journeys between districts take longer than a map suggests.
The districts
Deira and Bur Dubai — the old city, souks, canteens, the dhow wharves. Dense, low, walkable.
Downtown — the Burj Khalifa, the mall, the fountain. Built from 2004.
Business Bay — towers along the canal, immediately south.
Al Quoz — industrial, and where the art is.
Jumeirah and Umm Suqeim — low-rise coastal, villas, public beaches, the Burj Al Arab.
Marina and JBR — a dense tower cluster around an artificial marina, with the beach strip beside it.
Palm Jumeirah — the artificial island, mostly resorts and private residences.
The population
Around 3.7 million people in the emirate, and roughly 90 per cent are not Emirati. The largest groups are Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Filipino, followed by Egyptian, Iranian, British and a long list of others — around 200 nationalities in total.
This is the single most important fact about Dubai and it shapes everything: the food, the languages heard on the street, the labour market, and the fact that most residents are here on renewable employment-linked visas rather than as citizens.
Emirati citizens are a minority in their own city, which is a situation with no close parallel anywhere.
Language
Arabic is official. English is the working language of the city and is spoken essentially everywhere — you can spend a month here without needing Arabic. Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam, Tagalog and Farsi are all widely heard.
Marhaba is hello, shukran thank you, yalla let’s go, and inshallah covers a range of meanings from “certainly” to “no”.
The climate
Subtropical desert. November to March is warm, dry and close to perfect. June to September is 40 to 48°C with high humidity on the coast, and outdoor life effectively stops.
Rain falls on a handful of days a year, and when it does the drainage struggles.