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Colombo is the largest city and former capital of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island, adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital.<br/><br/> Colombo is a busy and vibrant city with a mixture of modern life and colonial buildings and ruins. It has a city population of 647,100 (2010). Due to its large harbour and its strategic position along the East-West sea trade routes, Colombo was known to ancient traders 2,000 years ago. However it was only made the capital of the island when Sri Lanka was ceded to the British Empire in 1815, and its status as capital was retained when the nation became independent in 1948.<br/><br/> In 1978, when administrative functions were moved to Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, Colombo was designated as the commercial capital of Sri Lanka. Like many cities, Colombo's urban area extends well beyond the boundaries of a single local authority, encompassing other municipal and urban councils. The main city is home to a majority of Sri Lanka's corporate offices, restaurants and entertainment venues. Famous landmarks in Colombo include Galle Face Green, Viharamahadevi Park and the National Museum.
The clock tower near Zegyo Market was built in 1903 and commemorates Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee.<br/><br/> Mandalay, a sprawling city of more than 1 million people, was founded in 1857 by King Mindon to coincide with an ancient Buddhist prophecy. It was believed that Gautama Buddha visited the sacred mount of Mandalay Hill with his disciple Ananda, and proclaimed that on the 2,400th anniversary of his death, a metropolis of Buddhist teaching would be founded at the foot of the hill.<br/><br/> The Irrawaddy River or Ayeyarwady River, also spelt Ayeyarwaddy is a river that flows from north to south through Burma (Myanmar). It is the country's largest river and most important commercial waterway.<br/><br/> Originating from the confluence of the N'mai and Mali rivers, it flows relatively straight North-South before emptying through the Irrawaddy Delta into the Andaman Sea. Its drainage area of about 255,081 km² covers a large part of Burma. After Rudyard Kipling's poem, it is sometimes referred to as 'The Road to Mandalay'.
Christ Church is an 18th-century Anglican church in the city of Malacca (Melaka). It is the oldest functioning Protestant church in Malaysia and is within the jurisdiction of the Lower Central Archdeaconry of the Anglican Diocese of West Malaysia.<br/><br/> In 1641 the Dutch, in alliance with the Sultan of Johor, succeeded in displacing the Portuguese and taking over control of Malacca. Their stamp is still indelibly marked on the city in the Stadthuys or Governor’s residence, the oldest Dutch building in Southeast Asia.
Trang has been a trading center since at least the 1st century AD. It grew to prosperity between the 7th and 13th centuries during the Srivijaya period and remains an important commercial town today.<br/><br/> Rubber, palm oil and fishing are the mainstays of the town's economy. Tourism is making an increasing impact as Trang’s Anadaman Coast and islands are increasingly developed and popularized.<br/><br/> The town has a strong Overseas Chinese character (and hence good Chinese restaurants) as a result of an influx of Chinese labor in the latter half of the 19th century.
Trang has been a trading center since at least the 1st century AD. It grew to prosperity between the 7th and 13th centuries during the Srivijaya period and remains an important commercial town today.<br/><br/> Rubber, palm oil and fishing are the mainstays of the town's economy. Tourism is making an increasing impact as Trang’s Anadaman Coast and islands are increasingly developed and popularized.<br/><br/> The town has a strong Overseas Chinese character (and hence good Chinese restaurants) as a result of an influx of Chinese labor in the latter half of the 19th century.
Trang has been a trading center since at least the 1st century AD. It grew to prosperity between the 7th and 13th centuries during the Srivijaya period and remains an important commercial town today.<br/><br/> Rubber, palm oil and fishing are the mainstays of the town's economy. Tourism is making an increasing impact as Trang’s Anadaman Coast and islands are increasingly developed and popularized.<br/><br/> The town has a strong Overseas Chinese character (and hence good Chinese restaurants) as a result of an influx of Chinese labor in the latter half of the 19th century.
Trang has been a trading center since at least the 1st century AD. It grew to prosperity between the 7th and 13th centuries during the Srivijaya period and remains an important commercial town today.<br/><br/> Rubber, palm oil and fishing are the mainstays of the town's economy. Tourism is making an increasing impact as Trang’s Anadaman Coast and islands are increasingly developed and popularized.<br/><br/> The town has a strong Overseas Chinese character (and hence good Chinese restaurants) as a result of an influx of Chinese labor in the latter half of the 19th century.
Galle was for centuries Sri Lanka’s main port, a position which strengthened during the periods of Portuguese and Dutch colonial rule. Galle only lost its primacy in the late 19th century, when the British expanded and developed the harbour at Colombo to become the island’s major port.<br/><br/>Perhaps the earliest recorded reference to Galle comes from the great Arab traveller Ibn Battuta, who visited the port—which he calls Qali—in the mid-14th century.<br/><br/>The Portuguese first arrived in 1505, when a fleet commanded by Lorenzo de Almeida took shelter from a storm in the lee of the town. Clearly the strategic significance of the harbour impressed the Portuguese, for 82 years later, in 1587, they seized control of the town from the Sinhala kings and began the construction of Galle Fort. This event marked the beginning of almost four centuries of European domination of the city, resulting in the fascinating hybrid—architecturally, culturally and ethnically—which Galle is today.<br/><br/>The Dutch captured the city from the Portuguese in 1640, and immediately began strengthening the fortifications. They remained for almost 150 years, until the city was in turn taken by the British in 1796.<br/><br/>Not until 1947, when Ceylon gained its independence from the British, did Galle become, once again, an independent city—and by this time the long years of association with European colonialism had left an indelible stamp on the city which makes it unique in today’s Sri Lanka.
Pondicherry was the capital of the former French territories in India. Besides Pondi itself – acquired from a local ruler in 1674 – these included Chandernagore in Bengal (1690); Mahé in Kerala (1725); Yanam in Andhra Pradesh (1731); and Karaikal in Tamil Nadu (1739). Chandernagore was returned to India three years after independence, in 1951, and was absorbed into West Bengal. Returned to India in 1956, the remaining four territories were constituted as the Union Territory of Pondicherry in 1962.<br/><br/> Today Karaikal, Yanam and Mahé are all small seaside resort towns, known chiefly for their cheap beer made possible by Pondicherry's light alcohol taxes. Karaikal, on the Coromandel Coast 100 kilometres south of Pondicherry, is similar to rural Pondi – a prosperous, Tamil-speaking enclave renowned for the abundance of its rice harvests. Yanam, located on the coast of Andhra Pradesh more than 600 kilometres north of Madras, is a tiny, Telugu-speaking town on a branch of the Godavari River. Mahé, on the Malabar Coast of northern Kerala is a quaint, picturesque town, named for its founder, Count Mahé de La Bourdonnais.<br/><br/> In September 2006, the territory changed its official name from Pondicherry to the vernacular original, Puducherry, which means 'New village'.
Trang has been a trading center since at least the 1st century CE. It grew to power and prosperity between the 7th and 13th centuries during the Srivijaya period and remains an important commercial town today.<br/><br/> Rubber, palm oil and fishing are the mainstays of the province's economy. Tourism is making an increasing impact as Trang’s Anadaman Coast and islands are increasingly developed and popularized. The town has a strong Overseas Chinese character (and hence good Chinese restaurants) as a result of an influx of Chinese labor in the latter half of the 19th century.<br/><br/> Trang province was dependent on tin mining until the first rubber seedlings were brought into Thailand around 1901 – part of a long journey from South America via the neighboring Malay States.
The traditional architecture of Phuket Town is distinctively Sino-Thai and Sino-Portuguese. Having been influenced by migrant Chinese settlers from southern China, it shares a great deal with neighboring Straits Chinese settlements architecture in both the Malaysian cities of Penang and Melaka, and with Singapore.
The traditional architecture of Phuket Town is distinctively Sino-Thai and Sino-Portuguese. Having been influenced by migrant Chinese settlers from southern China, it shares a great deal with neighboring Straits Chinese settlements architecture in both the Malaysian cities of Penang and Melaka, and with Singapore.
The traditional architecture of Phuket Town is distinctively Sino-Thai and Sino-Portuguese. Having been influenced by migrant Chinese settlers from southern China, it shares a great deal with neighboring Straits Chinese settlements architecture in both the Malaysian cities of Penang and Melaka, and with Singapore.