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| Welcome to Kota Kinabalu! |
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A city of friendly smiles and cool breezes, Kota Kinabalu is known in Malaysia as the place below the winds. Browse through our pages to get background information on Kota Kinabalu's accommodations, the many things you can see and experience, and how to get here.
Kota Kinabalu's geography and history
From the sea, Mount Kinabalu's misty peak looms in the background, and the city juts out on a coastal plain into Likas Bay. Not far from Kota Kinabalu's outskirts, Sabah's tropical rainforests stand thick and tall. Logging was rampant in the early part of the last century, making a lot of millionaires from the timber trade, but today, the land is divided between logging concessions and ecological sanctuaries. About four hundred thousand people call Kota Kinabalu home, of which around half belong to the Bumiputra - the native tribes of Sabah like the Kadazun and the Bajau; and an increasing number of tourists and immigrants.
Not much of the city is older than sixty - Kota Kinabalu, then called Jesseltown, was completely bombed out at the end of World War Two. Only two structures are left to recall the days of British rule - the Atkinson Clock Tower and the old Post Office building. After the war, Kota Kinabalu rebuilt itself with modern infrastructure, but building heights are limited because of the nearby airport. The narrow piece of flat land beside the sea meant that Kota Kinabalu's commercial district had to expand through land reclamation.
Kota Kinabalu was commonly called Api-Api by the locals, which still lingers on in the city's place names today. This may have come from the Malay word for 'fire' which reflects how the erstwhile British outpost was burned downed by Bornean pirates in the 18th century, or it may be the original name of a nearby river. Another evocative name is Deasoka, meaning 'the place below the coconut tree', which were plentiful in a village on its south end.
On the next page, you'll find out more about the Kota Kinabalu experience. |
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