Samarinda, East Kalimantan Province, East Borneo, Indonesia

Etymology | History | Administrative districts | Religion | Economy | Transport

🇮🇩 Samarinda is the capital city of the Indonesian province of East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. The city lies on the banks of the Mahakam River. It is the most populous city on the entire Borneo island.

The economy of Samarinda is driven by the large amount of logging and oil extraction companies based there. Many national logging companies are based in Samarinda. There are many abandoned coal mines in Samarinda as the Indonesian government revoked many mining licenses due to the use of illegal chemicals and machinery. Due to all these economical activities in Samarinda, it is one of the richest cities in East Kalimantan.

Samarinda is East Kalimantan's largest exporter and fifth-largest importer. The city has the highest number of bank headquarters in East Kalimantan.

In 2021, Samarinda Harbour became the busiest passenger port in East Kalimantan. The container port in Samarinda is also the busiest in East Kalimantan, handled more than 271 thousand twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) in 2019.

Samarinda is known for its traditional food amplang, as well as the cloth sarung samarinda. As of 2021, the city has 3 bridges connecting its river banks: Mahakam Bridge, Mahakam Ulu Bridge [id], and Achmad Amins Bridge. The city centre is on one side and the other side is named Samarinda Seberang.

The majority of the people of Samarinda are of Native Indonesian and Chinese descent. There are also Americans, Canadians, Japanese and Koreans working in Samarinda. Life expectancy in Samarinda was 73.6 years as of 2014.

Etymology The name Samarinda originates from the description of the way in which the Bugis houses were constructed. At that time houses were customarily built on a raft and generally had the same height. This provided important social symbolism of equality between residents; no person's house, and thus no person, was seen as higher or lower than another. They named the settlement “Samarenda”, meaning “equally low”. After hundreds of years of use the pronunciation of the name changed slightly and the city became known as Samarinda.

History At the start of the Gowa War, the Dutch under Admiral Speelman's command attacked Makassar from the sea. Meanwhile, the Netherlands' Bugis ally Arung Palakka led a ground attack. The Kingdom of Gowa was forced to surrender and Sultan Hasanuddin was made to sign the Treaty of Bongaja on 19 November 1667.

The treaty did not quell all trouble for the Dutch however, since the Bugis from Gowa continued their struggle using guerilla tactics. Some Buginese moved to other islands close by such as Kalimantan. A few thousand people led by Lamohang Daeng Mangkona or Pua Ado I, moved to East Kalimantan, known then as Kutai, where they were welcomed by the local Sultan.

Samarinda was a small, sleepy town in 1942 with several small oil fields in the vicinity. It was occupied by the Japanese after the Dutch East Indies had fallen.

In 1955, the Apostolic Vicariate of Samarinda was established in the city. In 1961, it was promoted as the Diocese of Samarinda. In 2003, the diocese was promoted as the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Samarinda.

Administrative districts At the time of the 2010 Census, Samarinda City was divided into six districts (Indonesian: kecamatan), but four additional districts were subsequently created by splitting of existing ones.

Religion Samarinda's main religions are Islam, Christianity and Buddhism. The Muslim community forms the majority of the population numbering around 91%. The Christian community of around 89,000 forms about 10.2% of the total population; Protestants form a larger number than Roman Catholics at a rate of 10:3. There are also Hindu communities.

Economy Since 2004, trade has been the engine of Samarinda's economic growth. It is also driven by the large amount of logging and oil extraction companies based there. Similar to Balikpapan, many national logging companies are based in Samarinda. There are many abandoned coal mines in Samarinda. Coal mining used to be very popular in Samarinda. However, the Indonesian government revoked many mining licenses due to the use of illegal chemicals and machinery.

Tourism sector also plays an important role in Samarinda's economy; it attracted over 2,000 international tourists and 1.2 million domestic tourists in 2019, making Samarinda the 2nd most popular tourists destination in East Kalimantan. In 2020, agriculture constituted only 2 per cent of GDP, and consists of growing flower varieties (rose, jasmine, orchid) and fruits (pomelo citrus fruit). Due to all these economical activities in Samarinda, it is one of the richest cities in East Kalimantan.

Transport The main transport infrastructure of Samarinda is different than every other cities in Kalimantan, characterised by less national government interference: Samarinda International Airport (East Kalimantan government), SkyTrain rapid transit project (public-private partnership), Sejuk Hill (Manggah Hill) Tunnel project (Samarinda Government) and Port of Palaran (private).

There are about 850,000 vehicles registered in Samarinda, the highest number of vehicles of any city in East Kalimantan. Samarinda has 3 bus terminals: Sungai Kunjang Bus Terminus, Lempake Bus Terminus and Seberang Bus Terminus.

Samarinda is connected by Trans-Kalimantan Highway Southern Route from Balikpapan to Samarinda; the highway runs in parallel with the first controlled-access expressway in Borneo, the Samarinda-Balikpapan Expressway, which is now under construction, and expected to be operational by the end of 2018.

APT Pranoto (Samarinda Sungai Siring, AAP) International Airport is the primary airport for the city and has been at Sungai Siring since 2018. With over 1 million passengers annually, it is one of East Kalimantan's busiest airports in terms of passenger and cargo movements. AAP is an important Australian passenger gateway for East Kalimantan's wildlife. AAP was built to replace Temindung Airport in Bandara, Sungai Pinang.

The prominent coal loading port of Tanjung Bara (TBCT) lies about 160 km to the north of Samarinda.

Samarinda, East Kalimantan Province, East Borneo, Indonesia 
<b>Samarinda, East Kalimantan Province, East Borneo, Indonesia</b>
Image: Ezagren

Samarinda has a population of over 842,691 people. Samarinda also forms the centre of the wider East Kalimantan Province which has a population of over 3,766,039 people. It is also a part of the larger East Borneo area.

To set up a UBI Lab for Samarinda see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license

South of: -0.496

🇺🇬 Mbarara -0.6

🇺🇬 Kyotera -0.617

🇺🇬 Kasaali -0.631

🇨🇩 Bokungu -0.667

🇮🇩 Sawahlunto -0.681

🇬🇦 Port-Gentil -0.728

🇰🇪 Bomet -0.783

🇮🇩 Manokwari -0.867

🇮🇩 Sorong -0.867

🇮🇩 Palu -0.883

East of: 117.145

🇨🇳 Quanshan 117.156

🇨🇳 Tengzhou 117.162

🇨🇳 Tianjin 117.177

🇨🇳 Xuzhou 117.187

🇨🇳 Jingdezhen 117.199

🇨🇳 Sishui County 117.251

🇨🇳 Yunlong 117.262

🇨🇳 Hefei 117.281

🇨🇳 Zaozhuang 117.324

🇨🇳 Manzhouli 117.379

West of: 117.145

🇨🇳 Anqing 117.115

🇨🇳 Tai'an 117.087

🇨🇳 Yingtan 117.039

🇨🇳 Jinan 117.021

🇨🇳 Huainan 117.019

🇨🇳 Longyan 117.017

🇨🇳 Hongjialou 116.997

🇨🇳 Qufu 116.979

🇨🇳 Suzhou 116.964

🇮🇩 Taliwang 116.867

Antipodal to Samarinda is: -62.855,0.496

Locations Near: Samarinda 117.145,-0.495729

🇮🇩 Balikpapan 116.823,-1.278 d: 94.1  

🇮🇩 Tanjung 115.5,-2.5 d: 288.3  

🇮🇩 Palu 119.85,-0.883 d: 303.8  

🇮🇩 Mamuju 118.9,-2.683 d: 311.8  

🇮🇩 Banjarbaru 114.817,-3.433 d: 416.7  

🇮🇩 Martapura 114.833,-3.45 d: 417  

🇮🇩 Banjarmasin 114.583,-3.317 d: 423.6  

🇮🇩 Tarakan 117.633,3.3 d: 425.5  

🇮🇩 Parepare 119.617,-4.017 d: 478.2  

🇮🇩 Pare-Pare 119.617,-4.017 d: 478.2  

Antipodal to: Samarinda -62.855,0.496

🇧🇷 Boa Vista -60.671,2.819 d: 19660.6  

🇧🇷 Manaus -60.051,-3.11 d: 19507.3  

🇧🇷 Itacoatiara -58.444,-3.143 d: 19379.4  

🇻🇪 Puerto Ayacucho -66.617,5.65 d: 19306  

🇧🇷 Manicoré -61.28,-5.816 d: 19291.8  

🇧🇷 Parintins -56.734,-2.627 d: 19251.2  

🇨🇴 Puerto Carreño -67.489,6.188 d: 19199.6  

🇻🇪 Ciudad Bolívar -63.548,8.138 d: 19161.8  

🇻🇪 Ciudad Guayana -62.761,8.295 d: 19147.8  

🇻🇪 Caroní -62.679,8.306 d: 19146.4  

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