Singkawang

Singkawang

Singkawang or Sakawokng in Dayak Salako or San-Khew-Jong (Hakka: 山口洋), is a coastal city and port located in the province of West Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo in Indonesia. It is located at about 145 km north of Pontianak, the provincial capital, and is surrounded by the Pasi, Poteng, and Sakkok mountains. Singkawang is derived from the Salako language,[2] which refers to a very wide area of swamps (all swamps). In addition, the ancestors of the Hakka Chinese community in Sakawokng also named this area in Hakka as "San-Khew-Jong" (Mount-Mouth-Sea), which means "A city located at the foot of a mountain near the sea and has a river that flows up to the mouth of the river (estuary)." The city was created on 21 June 2001 by separation from Bengkayang Regency. It is bordered to the east and south by Bengkayang Regency, to the west by the South China Sea, and to the north by Sambas Regency. It covers an area of 504 km2 and had a population of 186,462 at the 2010 Census[3] and 235,064 at the 2020 Census;[4] the official estimate as at mid 2022 was 241,467 (comprising 123,367 males and 118,100 females).[1] Originally Singkawang was a village in that part of the Sultanate of Sambas, named as Singkawang Village (Kampong Singkawang) as a haven for traders and gold miners from Monterado. The miners and traders who came mostly from China, before they headed towards Monterado, first rested in Singkawang, while gold miners from Monterado often rested in Singkawang to remove their tiredness, while Singkawang also served as the transit point for the transportation of gold dust. At that time, they called Singkawang with the word Sakawokng (Salakko Dayak language), which means a very wide swampy swamp area located on the beach. Dayak Salako are part of the soldiers and intelligence of the Sultanate of Sambas which was given territorial territory in Binua Sarauntung Sakawokng.