Kapit

Kapit is a town and the capital of Kapit District in Kapit Division, Sarawak, Malaysia on the south bank of the Rajang River. The district comprises 15,595.6 square kilometres and as of 2002 has a population of 60,200.Rajah Charles Brooke founded Fort Kapit in 1880 as a garrison town, primarily to prevent the Iban from migrating up-river and attacking Orang Ulu settlements. The fort was later renamed Fort Sylvia, after the wife of Rajah Vyner Brooke, Rani Sylvia Brooke, but the town retained the name of Kapit. Initially settled by Hoklo (Hokkien) Chinese in 1880, additional Hakka Chinese immigrants arrived in 1906, and Fuzhou Chinese in 1919. The Chinese grew rubber and pepper and traded treated rubber sheet and forest products. In 1941, at the time of the Japanese occupation, Kapit only had two rows of 37 shophouses. The town was completely destroyed by allied bombing during the war. Kapit today remains as a busy but compact town with a few streets running parallel to the river.