Baucau is a district

Districts of East Timor

||East Timor is divided into thirteen administrative districts. The districts are divided into subdistricts, and further subdivided into sucos.The borders between Cova-Lima and Ainaro and between Baucau and Viqueque were changed in 2003.-References:...

 of East Timor

East Timor

The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...

, on the northern coast in the eastern part of the country. The capital is also called Baucau

Baucau

Baucau is the second-largest city in East Timor, after Dili, the capital, which lies 122 km east of Dili.Baucau has about 16,000 inhabitants, and is the capital of Baucau, located in the eastern part of the country...

 (formerly Vila Salazar). The population of the district is 104,571 (census 2004) and it has an area of 1,494 km². The subdistricts are Baguia, Baucau

Baucau

Baucau is the second-largest city in East Timor, after Dili, the capital, which lies 122 km east of Dili.Baucau has about 16,000 inhabitants, and is the capital of Baucau, located in the eastern part of the country...

, Laga

Laga (East Timor)

Laga is a city and subdistrict in Baucau District, East Timor....

, Quelicai, Vemasse

Vemasse

Vemasse is a town and subdistrict in the Baucau District of East Timor. Its population at the 2004 census was 8,886.-Reference:*...

, and Venilale

Venilale

Venilale is a city and subdistricts in Baucau District, East Timor....

 (formerly known as Vila Viçosa). The district was the same during the colonial era. Its north edge is to the Wetar Strait

Wetar Strait

The Wetar Strait separates the eastern part of the island of Timor from the island of Wetar. It thus lies between the nations of Indonesia to the north and East Timor to the south. To the west is Atauro, and beyond it the Ombai Strait; while to the east is the southern part of the Banda Sea and...

; it also borders the districts of Lautém

Lautém

Lautém is one of the districts of East Timor, on the eastern end of the island of Timor. It has a population of 57,453 and an area of 1,702 km2. Its capital is Lospalos, which lies 248 km east of the national capital, Dili. The subdistricts are Iliomar, Lautém, Lospalos, Luro, and Tutuala.To the...

 to the east, Viqueque

Viqueque (district)

Viqueque is the largest of the districts of East Timor. It has a population of 66,434 and an area of 1,781 km2. The capital of the district is also named Viqueque. The subdistricts are Lacluta, Ossu, Uato-Lari , Uato Carabau and Viqueque...

 to the south, and Manatuto

Manatuto (district)

Manatuto is one of the districts of East Timor, located in the central part of the country. It reaches both the south and north coasts of the island, and is only one of two districts to do so . To the north is the Strait of Wetar, to the south is the Timor Sea...

 to the west.
Besides the national official languages of Tetum and Portuguese

Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

, most of the inhabitants speak the Papuan language Makasae

Makasae

Makasae is a Papuan language spoken by about 70,000 people on the eastern part of East Timor, in the districts of Baucau and Viqueque, just to the west of Fataluku...

. While most of the inhabitants are Roman Catholics, a few Muslims also live there.

Baucau has the most highly developed agriculture in East Timor. Besides the staples rice

Rice

Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...

 and corn

Maize

Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...

, Baucau produces beans, peanuts

Peanuts

Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...

, sweet potatoes, copra

Copra

Copra is the dried meat, or kernel, of the coconut. Coconut oil extracted from it has made copra an important agricultural commodity for many coconut-producing countries. It also yields coconut cake which is mainly used as feed for livestock.-Production:...

, candlenut

Candlenut

Aleurites moluccana, the Candlenut, is a flowering tree in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, also known as Candleberry, Indian walnut, Kemiri, Varnish tree, Nuez de la India, Buah keras or Kukui nut tree....

 and manioc. It also raises buffalo and goats. A shortage of transportation links and the unpredictability of energy availability stymie the development of emerging industries.

In the subdistrict Venilala are tunnels that the Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese built during their occupation in the Second World War. Also in this subdistrict is an ongoing project to reconstruct and renovate the Escola do Reino de Venilale (School of the Kingdom of Venilale). http://gertil.fa.utl.pt/projectos/SW-A00-13/

Baucau also has a wide coastline with sandy beaches, ideal for swimming and other watersports.

Baucau has the country's longest airport runway, in Cakung Airport

Cakung Airport

Cakung Airport is an unattended airport located west of Baucau, a city in East Timor .Under Portuguese rule, Baucau Airport, which has a much longer runway than Dili's Presidente Nicolau Lobato International Airport was used for international flights, including those of Trans Australia Airlines...

, as currently, Dili

Dili

Dili, spelled Díli in Portuguese, is the capital, largest city, chief port and commercial centre of East Timor.-Geography and Administration:Dili lies on the northern coast of Timor island, the easternmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands....

's Nicolau Lobato International Airport

Presidente Nicolau Lobato International Airport

Presidente Nicolau Lobato International Airport , formerly known as Comoro International Airport, is an airport located in Dili, the capital of East Timor...

 can only serve small airliners like the Boeing 737

Boeing 737

The Boeing 737 is a short- to medium-range, twin-engine narrow-body jet airliner. Originally developed as a shorter, lower-cost twin-engine airliner derived from Boeing's 707 and 727, the 737 has developed into a family of nine passenger models with a capacity of 85 to 215 passengers...

. The airport is located six km from the city of Baucau. It served as the country's principal airport before the Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

n invasion in 1975, when it was taken over by the Indonesian military.