Kuching
| Kuching | ||||
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 Malaysia
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| State : | Sarawak | |||
| Coordinates : | 1 ° 33 ' N , 110 ° 21' E | |||
| Area : | 431.01 km² (city) | |||
| 1,863 km² (associated area) | ||||
| Residents : | 634,517 (as of 2006) | |||
| Population density : | 322 inhabitants per km² | |||
| Time zone : | UTC +8 | |||
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Kuching (formerly: Kucing ) is the capital of the Malaysian state of Sarawak . With 634,517 inhabitants (2006) it is the largest city on the island of Borneo .
geography
Kuching is located in northwest Borneo a few kilometers above the mouth of the Sarawak River into the South China Sea .
climate
The climate in Kuching is tropical , consistently hot and rainy. The average annual rainfall is 4,000 millimeters. Most of the rain falls during the monsoons from December to February. The average annual temperature is 26 degrees Celsius.
history
The White Rajas
The name of the city Kuching ( kucing ) means cat in the Malay language and is said to come from Bukit Mata Kuching , a hill in the center of the city. But there are also a number of other interpretations for the name of the city, which it only officially received in 1872. Previously the city was called Sarawak.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Kuching was a small settlement on the banks of the Sarawak. When James Brooke became the first White Raja in Sarawak in 1841 , he made the now larger settlement his residence . In 1848 Brooke took over the two-story wooden building of the German Lutheran congregation in Kuching, completed in 1847 - Pastor Rupe had returned to Germany - as a courthouse.
The second White Raja, Charles Johnson Brooke , built most of the city's historic buildings. In 1870 he built today's Astana (governor's palace), his residence for himself and his wife. Fort Margherita - completed in 1879 as a security against pirate attacks - was named Charles Brooke after his wife Margaret Alice Lili de Windt, the Rani . He built the Sarawak Museum in 1891 in the style of a French town hall.
Urban history
The beginning of the settlement was initiated by Chinese traders. The city's oldest temple, the Chinese Tua Pek Kong Temple at the beginning of today's Jalan Main Bazaar , can trace its history back to 1770. The temple is leaned against a hill by the river, according to Feng Shui tradition, and in front of the temple was the first market square of the settlement.
When James Brooke visited the Sarawak settlement for the first time in 1839, there was already a row of houses on the bank, later called Main Bazaar , and shipping piers for handling goods in front of the row of houses.
Originally, all of the city's buildings were constructed from wood. The first to replace the wooden houses along the river Main Bazaar with brick buildings with clay tile roofs was in 1872 . But on January 20, 1884, 160 wooden houses burned down in the city - in today's old town area behind the Main Bazaar . The first generation of stone buildings was built in the colonial style. With the advent of Art Deco in the 1920s, many colonial-style buildings were replaced by Art Deco structures in the decades that followed.
population
In the course of the 20th century , mainly Malays , Chinese and members of various indigenous Dayak peoples such as the Bidayuh , Iban or Kenyah settled in Kuching .
The Chinese population consists largely of Fujianese (Hokkien) in the urban areas and Hakka in the rural areas.
Kuching is divided into a northern and a southern part; both districts have their own mayors . One part is mainly inhabited by people of Chinese descent, the other by Malays .
Culture and sights
city
Sights of the city are the Fort Margherita, whose direct access route already leads through the Botanical Garden, actually a great public park, the Sarawak Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Textile Museum, the Cat Museum and various cat statues all over the place City, the Buddhist Tua Pek Kong Temple and the old town with the market, a wet market .
The Kuching Waterfront is the city's waterfront on the Sarawak River. The Jalan Main Bazaar with its colonial -style and Art-Deco buildings runs along the waterfront . On the Waterfront in 1912, built as an administrative building for the Chinese community nunmehrige Chinese Museum, which in 1879 built Square Tower and the building of the stand Sawarak Steamship Company of the 1930th
The Old Court House Complex, which close off the Main Bazaar , is also on the waterfront . The old courthouse - six in number and originally called the Court House - built on the site of the former German Lutheran congregation since 1868 - has also been used for the entire administration, the post office and the Sawarak Steamship Company , founded in 1875, since its completion in 1874 . The previous wooden courthouse was demolished in 1868. Remnants of a brick entrance staircase are still preserved from this wooden building from 1847.
The building complex of the old courthouse has been enlarged over the decades with additions and the construction of additional buildings. Most recently by the Japanese during the Japanese occupation in Kuching in World War II from December 24, 1941 to September 11, 1945 with a two-story building - in contrast to the other one-story buildings - but in the same style. The old courthouse was used by the city administration until 2000 and has been used for gastronomy, exhibitions and tourism since 2003.
India Street , where Indians have settled since the 1850s, begins at the Old Courthouse . The street was eventually designed in the Art Deco style. Today India Street is a covered pedestrian street.
Immediately behind the Jalan Main Bazaar , the oldest street in the city, is the old town, which, like the Main Bazaar, was built by Chinese traders and is also kept in Art Deco and colonial styles. The old town also includes the old courthouse, India Street and the market at the other end of India Street , behind which lies the dry dock , which was completed in 1912 and which also closes off the old town on the river side.
Especially in the evening, the waterfront is a popular destination for locals and tourists. Every evening there is a musical laser light and water fountain show in front of the DUN complex , which is easy to see from the waterfront . The futuristic pedestrian bridge over the Sarawak between the DUN complex and the waterfront , illuminated in color in the evening, sets a further accent in the cityscape.
At the weekend the huge weekend market opens in the Satok district. It sells local foods, tropical fish, vegetables and jungle fruits.
The three-day Rainforest World Music Festival has been held in Kuching every year since 1998 .
A large building that significantly shapes the city's skyline is the DUN complex, which, among other things, houses the Parliament of Sarawak. The building is located between Fort Margherita and Astana (the former residence of the Rajas) opposite the Kuching Waterfront . It is around 125 meters high and approx. 200 meters wide including additions. Particular attention is paid to the roof construction, which is striking from afar with its golden color and tent-roof-shaped appearance.
Surroundings
In the vicinity of Kuching there are many attractions such as the longhouse Annah Rais of the Iban in the interior, the museum village Sarawak Cultural Village on Mount Santubong (810 m) with a view of the surrounding mangrove forests and Damai Beach, the Bako National Park , the Kubah National park with the Matang Wildlife Center, Jong's Crocodile Farm and the Orang Utan Wildlife Sanctuary and about two hours away the Gunung Gading National Park with the Rafflesias , the world's largest flowers.
See also: National parks and protected areas in Malaysia
Culinary
Kuching has numerous local specialties ready for its visitors. These are usually a bit more spicy, but still suitable for the “European stomach”. Drinks tend to be more sugary.
Very popular for breakfast are Kolo Mee (noodles with small meat fillings, mostly pork), Wantan Mee , various other noodle variations with fish and seafood as a filler, Pau (filled steamed noodles), dim sum and various sweet rice cakes.
For lunch and dinner, the following are available almost everywhere: Laksa (noodle stew with various ingredients such as chicken, fish or shrimp), chicken (boiled or fried) with rice or noodles, curry , mixed vegetables with rice, various beef and pork dishes, mostly with rice, fried noodles and fried rice, which is then optionally available with chicken, beef or duck and with vegetables.
Special features: Most warm dishes such as soups, rice and pasta dishes are also available as "specials". This is either a stronger seasoning or the addition of offal such as liver, heart or stomach.
Infrastructure
Just 15 km from the city center there is the extended in 2006, modern airport Kuching International Airport . The low-cost airline AirAsia offers several domestic routes and plans to also serve routes abroad with its subsidiary in the future. The airline MASwings , a subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines , offers some routes within Borneo. Indonesian airlines also fly to Kuching.
Town twinning
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Kunming , People's Republic of China -
Xiamen , People's Republic of China
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Zhenjiang , People's Republic of China
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Pontianak , Indonesia -
Johor Bahru , Malaysia
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Jeddah , Saudi Arabia -
Guro-gu , South Korea -
Seattle , United States
sons and daughters of the town
- Koreyoshi Kurahara (1927–2002), Japanese film director and screenwriter
- Tsai Ming-liang (* 1957), film director
- James Wan (* 1977), screenwriter and film director
- Mohd Azlan Iskandar (* 1982), squash player
- Steph Song (* 1984), Malaysian actress of Chinese origin
Climate tables
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Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Kuching
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Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Best Sarawak Kolo Mee in Kuching - FoodAdvisor. Archived from the original ; accessed on March 1, 2020 (English).