| Sandakan 山打根 Elopura |
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| Nickname(s): The Nature City, Little Hong Kong | |||
| Location in Sabah and Malaysia | |||
| Country | Malaysia | ||
| State | Sabah | ||
| Establishment | 1879 | ||
| Government | |||
| • Council President | Ir. James Wong | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 2,266 km2 (875 sq mi) | ||
| Population (2009) | |||
| • Total | 479,121 | ||
| • Density | 211.4/km2 (547.6/sq mi) | ||
| Time zone | MST (UTC+8) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | Not observed (UTC) | ||
| Postcode | 90000 to 90999 | ||
| Area code(s) | 089 | ||
| Website | http://www.mps.sabah.gov.my/ | ||
Sandakan is the second-largest city in Sabah, East Malaysia, on the north-eastern coast of Borneo. It is located on the east coast of the island. It is the administrative centre of Sandakan Division and was the former capital of British North Borneo. Sandakan is known as the gateway for ecotourism destinations in Sabah, such as the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre, the Rainforest Discovery Centre, Turtle Islands Park, Kinabatangan River and Gomantong Caves.
The area is also infamous as the site of a World War II Japanese airfield, now known as Sandakan Airport, which was built by the forced labour of 6,000 Javanese civilians and Allied prisoners of war. In 1945, the surviving Australian prisoners were sent on the Sandakan Death Marches; only 6 of them survived the war.
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During the early 1870s, the east coast of Sabah was under control of the Sultan of Sulu, who also ruled what is now the southern Philippines. The first European settlement in the area was founded by Captain William Schuck, a Scot, but when Schuck got himself an island around the controlled coast of Sultan of Sulu, William Clarke Cowie, a gun smuggler from Glasgow, replacing himself over Schuck, who then received permission from the Sultan to establish a small trading base.[1] Cowie called his settlement as Sandakan, which in (Sulu) language means "the place that was pawned", but it soon came to be known as "Kampung German" after the large number of Germans who also set up posts there. The settlement was part of the lease Austro-Hungarian consul Baron von Overbeck acquired from the Sultan of Sulu, Sultan Jamal Ui Alam in 1878, which according to the lease, the width upon the concession that von Overbeck acquired were starting from Sungai Sibuco (or known as Sg. Sibuga nowadays) up until the Sungai Padasan's province. During and according to the concession made, von Overbeck will paid $5000 per year towards the Sultan of Sulu and was declared as the Dato Bendahara as well as The King of Sandakan.[1] Baron von Overdeck decided to entrust a number of English officers that he certainly trusted to administrate and took control of his areas of province. One of the trusted officer was the new British Resident, William Burges Pryer. Pryer was most acknowledge as the administrator in which introduced a law known as The Law of Trading's Taxes as a way to avoid any excessive exploitation of trading activities being made. Pryer came to manage and solved a lot of problems such as pirates' attacks, which subsequently attracted the foreign traders to visited the new town. While the Kampung German made a fast development, its actually encountered in a fire due to a carelessness of a resident named, Sabtu. The whole area of Kampung German are burnt down including Pryer own house. The incident caused Pryer and the residents of Kampung German to move to (what is now called) Buli Sim Sim on 18 June 1879.[2] He named his new settlement Elopura, which means Beautiful City. A few years later, the name reverted back to Sandakan. The name Elopura still refers to a Sabah state constituency in Sandakan.
In 1883, the capital of the British North Borneo Company was moved from Kudat to Sandakan. In the mid-1930s, Sandakan's timber export reached the record figure of 180,000 cubic meters, making it the largest timber-exporting port of tropical hardwood in the world. At the height of the timber boom, Sandakan boasted that it had the highest concentration of millionaires anywhere on Earth.
The Japanese occupation of Sandakan during World War II began on 19 January 1942[3] and lasted until a brigade of the Australian 9th Division liberated it on 19 October 1945. The Japanese administration restored the name Elopura for the town. One of the atrocities of World War II was the Sandakan Death Marches, when Japanese soldiers decided to move about 2,400 prisoners of war in Sandakan 260 km (160 mi) inland to the town of Ranau. The prisoners who did not die en route to Ranau were crammed into unsanitary huts; most of those survivors either died from dysentery or were killed by prison guards. When the war ended, Sandakan was totally destroyed, partly from the Allied bombings and partly by the Japanese. As a result, when North Borneo became a British Crown Colony in 1946, the capital was shifted to Jesselton, now known as Kota Kinabalu, (often just called 'KK' locally).
Sandakan remains Sabah's second most important port, after Kota Kinabalu. The port is important for palm oil, tobacco, cocoa, coffee, manila hemp and sago exports. Sandakan is also one of the most bustling towns in East Malaysia. The once dominant timber industry is now relatively small. It is likely tourism will become increasingly important to the town's future.
In recent years, businesses have shifted their operations away from the town centre to the suburbs (Bandar Ramai-Ramai, Bandar Leila, Bandar Nam Tung, Bandar Maju, Bandar Kim Fung, Bandar Pasaraya, Bandar Letat, Bandar Indah Jaya, Bandar Utama, Bandar Perdana, Bandar Labuk Jaya, Bandar Sibuga Jaya, etc.) due to the presence of significant illegal immigrants in the town centre. In January 2003, the Sandakan Harbour Square, an urban renewal project, was launched in an attempt to revive the town centre as the commercial hub in Sandakan. It will feature extra shoplots, a new central market and fish market, a shopping mall (Sandakan Harbour Mall), and hotels. It is to be built in four separate phases and is due for completion in early 2012.
Sandakan has a tropical rainforest climate under the Koppen climate classification. The city sees heavy precipitation throughout the year, with the heaviest precipitation seen from November through January. Temperatures are relatively constant throughout the course of the year with average high temperatures around 31 degrees Celsius and average low temperatures of 24 degrees Celsius. Sandakan averages approximately 3100 mm of precipitation per year.
| Climate data for Sandakan | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | 29 (84) |
29 (84) |
30 (86) |
31 (88) |
32 (89) |
32 (89) |
32 (89) |
32 (89) |
31 (88) |
31 (88) |
30 (86) |
29 (85) |
31 (87) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 24 (76) |
24 (76) |
24 (76) |
24 (76) |
24 (76) |
24 (76) |
24 (75) |
24 (75) |
24 (75) |
24 (75) |
24 (76) |
24 (76) |
24 (76) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 410 (16.14) |
250 (9.84) |
200 (7.87) |
110 (4.33) |
150 (5.91) |
190 (7.48) |
180 (7.09) |
200 (7.87) |
240 (9.45) |
260 (10.24) |
350 (13.78) |
450 (17.72) |
3,060 (120.47) |
| Source: http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?s=19469&refer=&units=metric | |||||||||||||
Primary Schools
SK Kg Suan Lamba
SK Abai
SK Bambangan Sandakan
SK Bandar Sandakan
SK Batu 16, Gum Gum
SK Bawang Sandakan
SK Built
SK Bukit Garam
SK Bongon Besar
SK Buang Sayang Kinabatangan
SK Gum Gum Kecil
SK Inarad
SK Jaya Bakti
SK Kabuluh
SK Kampong Gas
SK Karamunting
SK Kem Tentera
SK Kenang-kenangan
SK Keniogan
SK Karamuak
SK Kg Bahagia
SK Kg Baru Sandakan
SK Kg Batu Puteh
SK Rancangan Suan Lamba
SK Kiandongo
SK Labuk Subur
SK Ladang Sandak
SK Ladang Sg Bendera
SK Langkabong
SK Linayukan
SK Lingkabau
SK Lubang Buaya
SK Lung Manis
SK Maidan Paitan
SK Malalin
SK Maliau
SK Masaum
SK Mananam
SK Mangkawago
SK Minusoh
SK Moynod
SK Muhibbah
SK Mumiang
SK Nangoh
SK Nunuyan Laut
SK Obah
SK Pamaguan
SK Pamol
SK Pantai Poring
SK Pekan Beluran
SK Perancangan
SK Pertanian
SK Pitas Mumiang
SK Pulau Lubukan
SK Pulau Sanghai
SK Pulau Timbang
SK Rancangan Lubuh
SK Saguon
SK Sakilan Desa
SK Sangau
SK Sapagaya
SK Segaliud
SK Semawang
SK Seri Manis
SK Sibugal Besar
SK Simpangan
SK Sepinong
SK Sogo Sogo
SK Sri Ganda
SK Sri Tanjung Papat 1
SK Sri Tanjung Papat 2
SK Sualok
SK Sukau
SK Sungai Anib 1
SK Sungai Anib 2
SK Sungai Kayu
SK Sungai Madang
SK Sungai Manila
SK Sungai Nangka
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SK Sungai Padas |
Secondary Schools
SMK Agama Sandakan
SMK Batu Sapi
SMK Elopura Bestari
SMK Elopura II
SMK Entilibon
SMK Gum-Gum
SMK Muhibbah
SMK Pamol
SMK Penangah
SMK Perempuan
SMK Sandakan
SMK Sandakan II
SMK Segaliud
SMK Taman Fajar
SMK Libaran
SMK Terusan Sugut
SMK Datuk Pengiran Galpam
SM Teknik Sandakan
St. Cecilia's Convent
St. Mary's Secondary School(Boys' School)
St. Michael's Secondary School
Sung SiewSecondary School
SMJK Tiong Hua
Yu Yuan Secondary School (Private School)
Tertiary Academic Institution
Politeknik Sandakan (PSS)
Open University Malaysia, PPT Sandakan (Universiti Terbuka Malaysia)
Universiti Putra Malaysia - IDEAL Sandakan
ILP Sandakan (Industrial Training Institute)
Kinabalu College
Maktab Rendah Sains MARA Sandakan
Pusat Giat Mara Sandakan
Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kampus Sandakan
Rugby is popular in Sandakan, Eddie Butler, a former Welsh Rugby Union captain, described it as the "Limerick of the tropics"[4] In 2008 at the newly build Sandakan Rugby Club, the Borneo Eagles-Sabahns (a team which included a few professional Fijians), hosted at the Borneo 10-a-side tournament for the eight and last time. Next year the tournament will change to seven-aside, which is an internationally popular format and one which the IRB is promoting as a possible Olympic sport.[4]
Football also popular among the Sandakan folk. A football stadium located in Sibuga Sports Complex can accommodate more than 5,000 persons in one time.
As Sandakan was almost totally destroyed in World War II, there are few surviving buildings of any age. Some of the main sights today include:
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