Beluran
Beluran is the capital of the Beluran District in the Sandakan Division of Sabah, Malaysia. Its population was estimated to be around 3,132 in 2010; the population is a mixture of many ethnic groups, with the Kadazan-Dusun and Orang Sungai communities being the four largest components. The town is located about 88 kilometres from Sandakan town. Media related to Beluran at Wikimedia Commons
Zamboanga City
Zamboanga City the City of Zamboanga, is a 1st class urbanized city in the Zamboanga Peninsula of the Philippines. According to the 2015 census, it has a population of 861,799 people, it is the 6th 3rd largest city by land area in the Philippines. It is the industrial center of the Zamboanga Peninsula Region. On October 12, 1936, Zamboanga became a chartered city under Commonwealth Act No. 39. It was inaugurated on February 26, 1937. Zamboanga City is an independent, chartered city and was designated urbanized on November 22, 1983. Although geographically separated, an independent and chartered city, Zamboanga City is grouped with the province of Zamboanga del Sur for statistical purposes, yet governed independently from it. Zamboanga City was founded in the late 12th or early 13th century as a settlement by the Subanen people. Zamboanga peninsula was the homelands of the ancestors of the Yakan, the Balanguingui, other related Sama-Bajau peoples; the area was inhabited by the Subanen people and was the site of trade among the Chinese and different native ethnic groups around the area.
During the 13th century, the Tausūg people started migrating to Zamboanga and the Sulu archipelago from their homelands in northeastern Mindanao. They became the dominant ethnic group after they were Islamized in the 14th century and established the Sultanate of Sulu in the 15th century. A majority of the Yakan, the Balanguingui, the Sama-Bajau were Islamized, though most of the Subanen remained animist; the city used to be known as Samboangan in historical records. Samboangan is a Sinama term for "mooring place", from the root word samboang; the name was Hispanicized and named as Zamboanga. This is contested by folk etymologies which instead attribute the name to the Indonesian word jambangan with claims that all ethnic groups in Zamboanga were "Malays". However, this name has never been attested in any historical records prior to the 1960s. Spanish explorers arrived in the Philippine archipelago in 1521. In 1569 Zamboanga was chosen as the site of the Spanish garrison on La Caldera. Zamboanga City was one of the main strongholds in Mindanao, supporting colonizing efforts in the south of the island and making way for Christian settlements.
It served as a military outpost, protecting the island against foreign invaders and Moro pirates. In 1599, the Zamboanga fort was closed and transferred to Cebú due to great concerns about attack by the English on that island, which did not occur. After having abandoned the city, the Spaniards as well as some Latin-American mercenaries from Peru and Mexico, joined forces with troops from Pampanga and Visayan soldiers and reached the shore of Zamboanga to bring peace to the island against Moro pirates. In 1635, Spanish officers and soldiers, along with Visayan laborers, settled in the area and construction began on Fort San José to protect the inhabitants of the area from Moro piracy. Zamboanga became the main headquarters of the Spaniards on June 23, 1635 upon approval of King Philip IV of Spain, the Spanish founded the city. Thousands of Spanish troops headed by a governor general from Spain took the approval to build the first Zamboanga fortress in Zamboanga to forestall enemies in Mindanao like Moro pirates and other foreign invaders.
The Zamboanga fortress became the main focus of a number of battles between Moros and Spaniards while the Spanish ruled the region from 16th to 18th centuries. Spain was forced to abandon Zamboanga temporarily and withdraw its soldiers to Manila in 1662 after the Chinese under Koxinga threatened to invade the Spanish Philippines; the Spanish returned to Zamboanga in 1718 and rebuilding of the fort began the following year. The fort would serve as defence for the Christian settlement against Moro pirates and foreign invaders for the next years. While the region was dominated by Catholicism, Muslims kept up a protracted struggle against the ruling Spaniards in the country into the 18th century. In January 1798 a British naval squadron conducted a Raid on Zamboanga but was driven off by the city's defensive fortifications. In 1831, the custom house in Zamboanga was established as a port, it became the main port for direct communication, trading some goods and other services to most of Europe, Southeast Asia and Latin America.
The Americans arrived in the Philippines, headed by General Weyler with thousands of troops to defeat the Spaniards who ruled it more than three centuries. The Spanish government sent more than 80,000 Spanish troops to the Philippines; the Spanish government and peacefully surrendered the islands to the United States in the 1890s. Before the end of the 19th century, the Republic of Zamboanga was established right after when the Zamboangueño revolutionary forces defeated the last Spanish Government in Zamboanga and when Fort Pilar was turned over to General Vicente Álvarez, the first genuinely elected president who ruled the República de Zamboanga from 18 May 1899 until November 1899; the Republic of Zamboanga continued to exist until 1903 with Isidoro Midel as the 2nd President under a puppet government of the United States of America, and, succeeded by Mariano Arquiza. Upon the firm establishment of American colonization and dissolution of the Republic in 1903, Zamboanga City, as a municipality, was placed as the capital of the Moro Province, a semi-
Kudat
Kudat is the capital of the Kudat District in the Kudat Division of Sabah, Malaysia. Its population was estimated to be around 29,025 in 2010, it is located 190 kilometres north of Kota Kinabalu, the state capital, is near the northernmost point of Borneo. It is the largest town in the heartland of the Rungus people, a sub-ethnic group of the majority Kadazan-Dusun race and is therefore a major centre of Rungus culture, it is notable for being one of the first parts of Sabah to be settled by Chinese Malaysians from the Hakka dialect group. In the past, Kudat was known locally as "Tanjong Berungus" and sometimes called "Tambarungan". During the early arrival of Chinese traders at Tanjung Berungus, they were surprised to see a kind of grass growing everywhere; the desperation forced them to ask the locals comprising the Rungus tribes who are the native inhabitants of the place who explained to them that the grass are called "Kutad" in their language. The place became the centre of meeting between the local and Chinese traders to carry out trading activities.
However, since the Chinese pronunciation was inaccurate, the term "Kudat" emerging and became synonymously used among the people. The original inhabitants of Kudat are the native Rungus people, a sub-group of the Kadazan people, who traditionally lived inland in longhouse communities to stay beyond the reach of the pirates who frequented the coastline. In the late 19th century, Franz Witti, an explorer in the employ of the British North Borneo Chartered Company, discovered oil 26 km outside the present-day Kudat town; this may have been a reason why the Company chose Kudat as the site for their first settlement in British North Borneo. The town of Kudat was founded on 7 December 1881. Company officers began clearing the land with the aid of several Brunei Malays in preparation for the declaration of Kudat as the first capital of British North Borneo; this was made official in 1882. The British settlers ensured that they would live in peace with their native neighbours by signing a peace agreement with Temenggung Kurantud and Datu Harun.
British colonial officers in Kudat were quick to ensure that their recreational needs were satisfied by creating the Kudat Golf Club, the first golf club in Sabah. The original nine-hole, 3075m course was completed in the early 1900s, it is recognised as a challenging course due to the close proximity of roads and buildings around it. The Company's next step was to bring in Chinese migrants to work the land, it resorted to bringing in foreign workers for the purpose because it felt that "the productive and industrial value of the alien races is... far greater than that of the natives of Borneo... it will be a long time before the natives become, individually, as valuable assets to the State as the alien races". In 1882, the Governor of North Borneo, William Crocker, requested the help of Walter Medhurst, who had just been appointed as immigration commissioner in China, to send Chinese migrants to British North Borneo. Medhurst offered free passage to British North Borneo to any Chinese people interested in seeking employment there.
Most of these migrants disembarked and settled in Kudat and Sandakan, which were the largest towns in the colony. By the time Medhurst returned to the United Kingdom in 1885, 348 of the 937 residents of Kudat were Chinese. Of these, 222 worked as shopkeepers. During this time, Kudat's significance had waned as the Company moved the capital of British North Borneo to Sandakan. However, Chinese migration to Kudat continued, albeit at a slower pace. During World War II, the Japanese Imperial Army built and maintained an airfield in Kudat with the help of locals and forced labour from Java, Indonesia; the runway was built using coral stones as a base. Many of the Indonesian labourers died from hunger. In 1945, the United States Far East Air Force bombed the airfield with its B-25 bombers, putting it out of action; the current Kudat Airport is built on part of the Japanese-built airfield. After World War II, Kudat received little attention from the rest of British North Borneo, having long been eclipsed by the rapid growth of Sandakan and Kota Kinabalu.
Further exacerbating Kudat's isolation was the fact that it was only accessible by sea until a road was built in the 1960s linking Kudat with Kota Kinabalu. Locals concentrated on the coconut and seafood industries until the 1990s, when small numbers of visitors began coming to Kudat to experience traditional Rungus culture. In the early 2000s, Kudat underwent a period of rapid development. A raft of projects gave Kudat several new hotels, a sports centre, the Sidek Esplanade and a new road linking the town with the Pan-Borneo Highway. Additionally, the existing nine-hole course at the Kudat Golf Club was extended to a full 18 holes over 6080m. Today, the old nine-hole course is known as the'second nines' while the newer nine-hole course is referred to as the'first nines'. Kudat is home to a significant Hakka Chinese minority, among the oldest Hakka communities in Sabah. Hakka involvement in Kudat began in the 1880s with Walter Medhurst's offer of free passage to British North Borneo to prospective migrants in southern China.
The Basel Missionary Society in China was supportive of this initiative a missionary named Rudolph Lechler, described as the'godfather of Christian Hakka emigration'. He encouraged Christian Hakkas living in Guangdong province to take up Medhurst's offer; the first group of migrants to Kudat arrived in 1883 and founded the settlement of Lau San (Chinese: 老山.
Talisay, Negros Occidental
Talisay the City of Talisay, or known as Talisay City, is a 4th class city in the province of Negros Occidental, Philippines. According to the 2015 census, it has a population of 102,214 people, it is part of the metropolitan area called Metro Bacolod, which includes its neighbors Silay to the north and Bacolod to the south. It has a total land area of 20,118 hectares. Talisay is confused with another Talisay City, a component city in Cebu; the Negritos, natives who led nomadic lives at the foot of scenic North Negros mountain ranges inhabited Talisay. In 1788, families of Malay descent settled in the pristine part of Negros Island and named it Minuluan. Unknown to many, the sugar industry in province has its roots in Talisay; the enterprising Recollect priest led by Fray Fernando Cuenca, spurred the economic development of this once sleepy Sitio through the planting of sugarcane in vast tracts of land we call ‘haciendas’. The seedlings, brought from Spain, thrived well in the loamy soil. Fray Cuenca improved sugar production of the crude wooden mills with the invention of ‘Molino de Agua’.
The Spanish colonizers became guardians of our economic, socio-political and spiritual lives, with more of the Minuluan population embracing the Catholic faith, the Sitio was decreed a town on September 10, 1850, with San Nicolas de Tolentino as its patron saint. It was renamed Talisay after the tree. To accommodate the growing population, three more barrios were established – Dos Hermanas and San Fernando in the northern part and Concepcion in the South. At the turn of the century, Talisay became a significant player in revolt against Spain through the leadership of General Aniceto Lacson; the wily general and erstwhile Katipunero of the North teamed up with General Araneta from the South during the victorious Cinco de Noviembre uprising in 1898 that saw the Spaniards capitulating without bloodshed. The intervening years saw Talisay growing and methamorphosing into the budding city, today-full of promise and potential. On February 11, 1998, Talisay through the effort of its local official led by the Mayor Amelo Lizares was elevated into a city.
Talisay is known for its 2 major tertiary institutions: The Technological University of the Philippines – Visayas and Carlos Hilado Memorial State College, Main Campus. In 2016, business process outsourcing company iQor opens its call/contact center in Talisay, the first BPO company in the city. Talisay City is politically subdivided into 27 barangays. Metro Bacolod Bacolod City Negros Revolution Talisay City Official Website Talisay City Profile at the Official Website of Negros Occidental The Ruins Official Website Campuestohan Highland Resort Official Website Philippine Standard Geographic Code 2007 Philippine Census Information Region VI - Western Visayas Local Governance Performance Management System
Iloilo Strait
The Iloilo Strait is a strait in the Philippines that separates the islands of Panay and Guimaras in the Visayas, connects the Panay Gulf with the Guimaras Strait. It is the location of the Port of Iloilo, the third-busiest of the ports in the Philippines in number of ships. Iloilo City on Panay is the major city located on the strait with Buenavista and Jordan, both on Guimaras across the strait from the city; the Iloilo River empties into the strait. Pumpboat ferries cross every few minutes from Iloilo City to Guimaras and vice versa. Ships doing business with the Port of Iloilo moor in the strait; the Port of Iloilo was opened for international trade in 1855 and the coming of British Vice-consul Nicholas Loney, a year led to the fast development of the sugar industry in the region. 2GO Travel's ferry St. Gregory The Great nearly capsized on 15 June 2013, when it struck rocks under the water near the Siete Picados Islands. List of East Asian ports Media related to Iloilo Strait at Wikimedia Commons Philippine Ports Authority
Borneo
Borneo is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, east of Sumatra; the island is politically divided among three countries: Malaysia and Brunei in the north, Indonesia to the south. 73% of the island is Indonesian territory. In the north, the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak make up about 26% of the island. Additionally, the Malaysian federal territory of Labuan is situated on a small island just off the coast of Borneo; the sovereign state of Brunei, located on the north coast, comprises about 1% of Borneo's land area. A little more than half of the island is in the Northern Hemisphere including Brunei and the Malaysian portion, while the Indonesian portion spans both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Borneo is home to one of the oldest rainforests in the world; the island is known by many names. Internationally it is known as Borneo, after Brunei, derived from European contact with the kingdom in the 16th century during the Age of Exploration.
The name Brunei derives from the Sanskrit word váruṇa, meaning either "water" or Varuna, the Vedic god of rain. Indonesian natives called it Kalimantan, derived from the Sanskrit word Kalamanthana, meaning "burning weather island". In earlier times, the island was known by other names. In 977, Chinese records began to use the term Bo-ni to refer to Borneo. In 1225, it was mentioned by the Chinese official Chau Ju-Kua; the Javanese manuscript Nagarakretagama, written by Majapahit court poet Mpu Prapanca in 1365, mentioned the island as Nusa Tanjungnagara, which means the island of the Tanjungpura Kingdom. Borneo is surrounded by the South China Sea to the north and northwest, the Sulu Sea to the northeast, the Celebes Sea and the Makassar Strait to the east, the Java Sea and Karimata Strait to the south. To the west of Borneo are the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. To the south and east are islands of Indonesia: Java and Sulawesi, respectively. To the northeast are the Philippine Islands. With an area of 743,330 square kilometres, it is the third-largest island in the world, is the largest island of Asia.
Its highest point is Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, with an elevation of 4,095 m. Before sea levels rose at the end of the last Ice Age, Borneo was part of the mainland of Asia, with Java and Sumatra, the upland regions of a peninsula that extended east from present day Indochina; the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand now submerge the former low-lying areas of the peninsula. Deeper waters separating Borneo from neighbouring Sulawesi prevented a land connection to that island, creating the divide known as Wallace's Line between Asian and Australia-New Guinea biological regions; the largest river system is the Kapuas in West Kalimantan, with a length of 1,000 km. Other major rivers include the Mahakam in East Kalimantan, the Barito in South Kalimantan, Rajang in Sarawak and Kinabatangan in Sabah. Borneo has significant cave systems. In Sarawak, the Clearwater Cave has one of the world's longest underground rivers while Deer Cave is home to over three million bats, with guano accumulated to over 100 metres deep.
The Gomantong Caves in Sabah has been dubbed as the "Cockroach Cave" due to the presence of millions of cockroaches inside the cave. The Gunung Mulu National Park in Sarawak and Sangkulirang-Mangkalihat Karst in East Kalimantan which a karst areas contains thousands of smaller caves; the Borneo rainforest is estimated to be around 140 million years old, making it one of the oldest rainforests in the world. It is the centre of the evolution and distribution of many endemic species of plants and animals, the rainforest is one of the few remaining natural habitats for the endangered Bornean orangutan, it is an important refuge for many endemic forest species, including the Borneo elephant, the eastern Sumatran rhinoceros, the Bornean clouded leopard, the hose's palm civet and the dayak fruit bat. Peat swamp forests occupy the entire coastline of Borneo; the soil of the peat swamp are comparatively infertile, while it is known to be the home of various bird species such as the hook-billed bulbul, helmeted hornbill and rhinoceros hornbill.
There are about 15,000 species of flowering plants with 3,000 species of trees, 221 species of terrestrial mammals and 420 species of resident birds in Borneo. There are about 440 freshwater fish species in Borneo; the Borneo river shark is known only from the Kinabatangan River. In 2010, the World Wide Fund for Nature stated that 123 species have been discovered in Borneo since the "Heart of Borneo" agreement was signed in 2007; the WWF has classified the island into seven distinct ecoregions. Most are lowland regions: Borneo lowland rain forests cover most of the island, with an area of 427,500 square kilometres; the Borneo montane rain forests lie in the central highlands of the island, above the 1,000 metres elevation. The Tropical and subtropical grasslands and shrublands on South Kalimantan; the highest elevations of Mount Kinabalu are home to the Kinabalu mountain alpine meadow, an alpine shrubland notable for its numerous endemic species, including many orchids. The island had extensive rainforest cover, but the area w
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Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Mapun Island". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). 
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