Bangkok, known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon (pronounced [kruŋtʰeːp mahaːnakʰɔn], กรุงเทพมหานคร or Krung Thep (กรุงเทพฯ) for short, is the capital and primate city of Thailand. It is located on both sides of the Chao Phraya River. The western bank is locally referred to as 'Fung Thon' or Thon side whilst the eastern side which pertains the majority of Bangkokians is called subjectively as Krung Thep, the name of the city itself.
     Bangkok is the 22nd most populous city in the world. Bangkok province or the areas bounded by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), has a registered population nearing 7 million people, and the Bangkok Metropolitan Area, which covers five provinces surrounding the capital province in the central region of Thailand registers a little over 10 million. However, like many large cities, the city has seen a great flux of immigrants who are not properly listed in the city's administration. The population is therefore much more realistic in the band of 15-20 million.
     Bangkok is a magnet for foreigners escaping turmoil in their homeland or simply for business. It has long been the gateway to Asia for foreign interests seeking new markets. The city is a major economic and financial center of Southeast Asia and has one of the fastest rates in the world for construction of high rise buildings. The city's wealth of cultural sites makes it one of the world's most popular tourist destinations. The capital is part of the heavily urbanized triangle of central and eastern region of Thailand which stretches from Nakhon Ratchasima along Bangkok to the industrialized eastern seaboard. This urbanized area is 20 million registered Thais in addition to millions of illegal aliens searching for work in the most prosperous region in Indochina.
     The Bangkok Province borders six other provinces: Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani, Chachoengsao, Samut Prakan, Samut Sakhon and Nakhon Pathom.
     Bangkok (บางกอก) began as a baby trading centermost and anchorage association on the west coffer of the Chao Phraya River confined the Ayutthaya Kingdom, the forerunner of avant-garde Thailand which existed from 1350 to 1767. It is believed that the town's name acquired from either Blast Makok, blast actuality the Central Thai name for towns or villages anchored on the coffer of a river, and makok actuality the Thai name of either Spondias pinnata, Spondias mombin or Elaeocarpus hygrophilus (plants bearing olive-like fruits), or Blast Koh, koh acceptation "island," a advertence to the area's mural which was carved by rivers and canals. Wat Phra Kaew was complete as allotment of the Grand Palace circuitous at the founding of the capital.After the abatement of Ayutthaya to the Burmese Kingdom in 1767, the anew declared King Taksin accustomed a new basic in the breadth of then-Bangkok, which became accepted as Thonburi. When Taksin's administration concluded in 1782, King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke reconstructed the basic on the east coffer of the river and gave the burghal a august name (see below) which became beneath to its accepted official name, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon (which, analogously to "Los Angeles" agency "city of angels"). The new city, however, additionally affiliated the name Bangkok, which connected to be acclimate by foreigners to accredit to the absolute burghal and became its official English name, while in Thai the name still refers alone to the old commune on the west coffer of the river. The burghal has back awfully avant-garde and undergone abundant changes, including the addition of bus line and account basement in the reigns of King Mongkut and King Chulalongkorn, and bound developed into the bread-and-butter centermost of Thailand.