Surrounded by gold fields Johannesburg has developed into a powerful city with an infrastructure easily competing with leading first world cities.
Johannesburg - The Place of Gold
Surrounded by gold fields Johannesburg has developed into a powerful city with an infrastructure easily competing with leading first world cities. Situated in the smallest but most economically powerful province in South Africa - Gauteng (meaning ‘Place of Gold’)- Johannesburg’s high-rise littered skyline is the economic centre of South Africa.
This major urban metropolis is ideally suited to business and corporate travel and is an excellent conference venue. High tech hotels are common throughout the city and provide guests with every technological amenity you would need, along with world class service and competitive rates. Large conference venues are easily available and Johannesburg’s well organised network of taxis facilitates painless venue changes. The close proximity of Johannesburg International Airport makes international access simple and also provides a gateway to the rest of Africa. Business trips and conferences can be combined with safari experiences and many of the safari lodges also have conference facilities. Johannesburg’s well-organised network of taxis facilitates painless venue changes. Business trips and conferences can be combined with safari experiences and many of the safari lodges also have conference facilities. For the traveller of leisure Johannesburg will most probably be the starting point of your African adventure and offers many shopping malls and entertainment venues, as well as fascinating museums, art galleries and lively nightclubs.
This ‘Place of Gold’ as the Sotho word for Gauteng suggests, harbours the gold fields of South Africa. These are just part of one of the largest industrial regions in the Southern Hemisphere. No-one could have imagined the repercussions when an unemployed miner found a stone bearing traces of gold in 1886. This seemingly insignificant event led to the discovery of the world's richest natural treasure trove. People flocked to the area from all ends of the earth and the open pastoral landscape changed almost overnight. Shantytowns sprang up and were rapidly transformed into modern concrete cities. Johannesburg became ‘The Gold Capital of the World’, and the entire country was catapulted into an economic boom. Industrial development was confined to certain areas so that city dwellers may still find rural places and leisure resorts to retreat to. Unfortunately, violent crime is a major problem in the Johannesburg area and visitors should listen carefully to advice on where to go.