Borneo's gateway — Mount Kinabalu at dawn, ngiu chap beef noodles at the Filipino Market, and five coral islands by boat before noon
Kota Kinabalu is the capital of Sabah, Malaysia's East Malaysian state on the island of Borneo — the city that serves as the gateway to some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on earth: Mount Kinabalu (4,095m, the highest peak in Southeast Asia outside the Himalayas), the Kinabalu National Park (UNESCO World Heritage, with over 5,000 plant species including the world's largest flower, Rafflesia), the Danum Valley rainforest (one of the oldest and most intact lowland rainforests in the world), and the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park (five coral islands visible from the city waterfront, reachable…
Kota Kinabalu's modern history begins with the British North Borneo Chartered Company — a private colonial corporation granted a royal charter in 1881 to administer British North Borneo (the name of Sabah under colonial rule). The company established Jesselton (the colonial name for Kota Kinabalu, named after Sir Charles Jessel, a company official) as its administrative capital, building a port and rail line. The city was almost entirely destroyed in 1945 — the Japanese occupiers (1941–1945) demolished it systematically as they retreated before Allied liberation, and Allied bombing of Japanes…