Pontianak

The city was formerly the capital of the independent Sultanate of Pontianak and was founded on 23 October 1771 around an old trading station on the western coast of Borneo. It was built on swampy ground and tropical forest subjected to regular flooding by the river, requiring buildings to be constructed on piles to keep them off the ground. The name Pontianak refers to a story about ghosts that people in West Kalimantan refer to as Pontianak (a ferocious female ghost in Malay); it was a ghosts' haunt until Syarif Abdurrahman Alkadrie and his army fought and expelled the ghosts who attacked them by firing cannons. He then built a mosque and a palace, exactly on the location of the ghosts' haunt, and settled there. The mosque and palace became the first buildings in the city, and to this day locals fire bamboo cannons on Ramadan and other holidays in memory of this. …

The history of the city of Pontianak written by a Dutch historian, V.J. Verth in his book Borneos Afdeling Wester, whose content is slightly different from the version of the stories circulating in the community today. According to him, the Dutch started to go to Pontianak in 1773 from Batavia. Verth wrote that Syarif Abdurrahman, son of Sharif Hussein bin Ahmed cleric Alqadrie (or in another version called Al Habib Husin), left the Kingdom of Mempawah and began to wander. In the region of Banjarmasin, he married the sister of the sultan of Banjar, Sunan Nata Nature and was sworn in as prince. He was successful in commerce and accumulated enough capital to arm ships and boats and then started to take the fight against Dutch colonialism. With the help of Sultan Sand, Syarif Abdurrahman then successfully hijacked Dutch ship near Bangka, also British and French ships in the port of Pasir. …

Pontianak lies on the equator at a height ranging from 0.1 to 1.5 meters above sea level. It is divided into three parts by the Kapuas Besar and its major tributaries – the Kapuas Kecil and Landak rivers. The city lies on flat land in the delta of the Kapuas River with a ground level elevation ranging from 0.1 to 1.9 meters above sea level. The city is built on fall peneplain and alluvial sediments that are physically a clay type. This type of soil is in the form of peat and silt deposits of Kapuas river. Under these conditions, the soil is very unstable and has a very low carrying capacity. The soil composition along the river is formed from a precipitation process that produces a tropaquent area coupled with tropofluevent and under permanently saturated fluvawuent conditions. It is derived from the new sapphire sediment from various compositions and shapes, including organic matter. …

The cultural diversity in Pontianak presents various events throughout the year. The Tionghua/Indonesian Chinese community celebrates Lunar New Year, Cap Go Meh (Lantern Festival, which falls on the fifteenth day of the first month of lunar calendar), and Cheng Meng (Tomb Sweeping Festival, on first day of the fifth solar term of the lunar calendar). The Malay celebrates Idul Fitri, Idul Adha, and Maulidur Rasul. The Dayak People celebrates the harvest season, locally known as Gawai Dayak. These events are usually marked with extravagant cultural parades around the city. The equatorial line passing Pontianak is marked by a monument north of the city center. …

The gross regional domestic product of Pontianak City, according to the ADHK 2010 business field in 2015, reached 20.80 trillion rupiah. When compared to 2014, the production volume of goods and services produced in Pontianak City in 2015 increased by 0.96 trillion rupiah, or by 4.84 percent. Most of Pontianak city's economy relies on industry, agriculture, and trade. The trade, hotel, and restaurant sectors have been the largest economic base in Pontianak City in recent years. This can be seen from the percentage distribution of GDP, where the large and retail trade sector has the greatest role in total GDP compared to other sectors, which is 18.30 percent. In terms of usage, the value of GDP shows how products of goods and services are used for consumption, investment, or trading purposes with foreign/regional parties. …

Pontianak is well-connected by road, air, and sea. There are multiple city and intercity public transportation options. Supadio International Airport is the main airport for Pontianak and West Kalimantan, built by the Japanese during World War II. The Indonesian government then developed the airport, resulting in its present form. The airport is not located within the city limits, but in Kubu Raya Regency which is 17 km away from the city center. Currently it is the second-largest airport in Kalimantan in terms of terminal size, after Sultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman Airport in Balikpapan. After construction of a new modern terminal to replace the old and overutilised terminal, the airport currently has a capacity of 3.8 million passengers annually, double the previous terminal's capacity. …