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6 Facts About Dubai That Will Keep You Up All Night!
1. You'll probably only meet one Emarati on your entire trip
Emarati’s keep to themselves, away from the main tourist attractions, so it’s very rare that you will get to meet a local for a chat on the beach – most tourists only encounter one Emarati on their holiday: when they get their passport stamped at the airport. Border control is staffed almost entirely by Emarati’s, but this isn’t the ideal place to strike up a conversation about local life. If you do have burning questions, keep them for a visit to the Sheikh Mohammed Museum of Cultural Understanding – an initiative that connects holidaymakers with Emarati people.
2. There are far more men than women
Of Dubai’s 2.5 million-strong population, 1.7 million are male – that’s almost 70 per cent. Females account for just over 30 per cent of Dubai’s population, according to official census statistics. The higher proportion of men is due to the fact that most of the city’s expats are males, who have left their families behind in their home countries. Dubai residents are a sprightly bunch, too. 58 per cent of the population is aged 25 to 44, with the majority of people aged 30 to 34. Clearly, the cut-and-thrust expat lifestyle is best suited to youngsters: just 15 per cent of the population is aged 45 or over.
3. You can buy pretty much anything from a vending machine
The Gold to Go ATM in Dubai Mall allows you to buy anything from a 2.5-gram, 24-karat gold coin to a one-ounce gold bar. There’s even a computer inside the vending machine that changes the prices every 10 minutes in line with real-time fluctuations in the market. Or you can take a visit to the Sharaf DG store at the Times Square Centre mall, where you can buy a laptop, tablet, camera or phone straight from a vending machine.
4. The Burj Al Arab hotel uses enough gold to cover the Mona Lisa painting 46,265 times
The interior of the Burj Al Arab is decorated with around 1,790 square meters of 24-carat gold leaf. With that, you could cover 46,265 Mona Lisa paintings.
5. Roughly 85 percent of Dubai’s population is foreign
It is estimated that around 15 percent of Dubai’s population are Emarati’s, while the other 85 percent are immigrants. Emarati’s are by far outnumbered by expats in Dubai, to the tune of almost six to one. The majority of the population is Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Asian and Western. Most of the workers building Dubai’s hundreds of skyscrapers immigrated to the United Arab Emirates from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. As a result, they now comprise over 50% of the city’s population.
6. Dubai to Build World's First Temperature-Controlled Indoor 'City'
Already the home of the world's tallest building, Dubai is said to be the host of The Mall of the World. Developer Dubai Holdings says the city won't just have a glass-domed, climate-controlled interior, but hundreds of buildings, thousands of hotel rooms, and its own fully functional transit system. The company says the Mall of the World will be completed in 2020. If it is, it'll be world's first domed city.
