Sintang, Indonesia

With it's several hundred-thousand inhabitants, governmental buildings and Chinese shops, Sintang dominates most of the Kapuas. The city used to be, and still is the entrance to the hinterlands of Western Kalimantan, in special the rivers of Melawi, Kayan and Pinoh, which can be reached by longbot from the city.

The Pinoh springs in the Schwaner Range, the natural border between the provinces West Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan. Near Nanga, the Poinoh merges with the Melawi. A little north, the Kayan does the same. Seventy km northwest the Malawi merges with the Sintang, which eventually merges with the biggest river in KalBar, the Kapuas.

Sintang stretches over both banks of the Kapuas river, on the location where the Melawi merges with the river. It's location on the merge of both rivers made the city into a center of the Chinese trade with the hinterland. At the end of the 19th century, Sintang consisted of three separate, but dependent parts. The Malay kampung was located on the left short, along both sides of the small palace of the sultan. On the other shore was a big Chinese compound. Upstream, just past the Melawai river was a small, Dutch fortress, surrounded by a heavy wooden palisade. The Europeans lived behind the fortress, where nowadays are still the offices and houses of the civil servants.

The main center of the city is the former Chinese quarter; the most important piers, bus stations, cinemas, stores and trade are managed by Chinese Indonesians. The Dara Juanti Museum, built in 1937 on the location of the former palace, contains heirlooms, state objects and things from the hinduist period. Sintang also has a military museum, the Alambhana.

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