Bongawan is a town in the

West Coast Division West Coast Division ( ms, Bahagian Pantai Barat) is an administrative division of Sabah, Malaysia. It occupies the northwest portion of Sabah. With an area of 7,588 square kilometres, it occupies 10.3% of Sabah's territory. It also has approxi ...

of the state of

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indone ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. It is situated within the parliamentary constituency of Kimanis. The town center is 3 kilometers inland from the South China Sea and approximately 70 kilometers south of

Kota Kinabalu , image_skyline = , image_caption = From top, left to right, bottom:Kota Kinabalu skyline, Wawasan intersection, Tun Mustapha Tower, Kota Kinabalu Coastal Highway, the Kota Kinabalu City Mosque, the Wism ...

, the state capital. It is located on the A2 highway connecting Kota Kinabalu and the southern part of Sabah, and Bongawan railway station is one of the stops for

Sabah State Railway Sabah State Railway (SSR) is a railway system and operator in the state of Sabah in Malaysia. It is the only rail transport system operating on the island of Borneo. The railway consists of a single 134-kilometre line from Tanjung Aru, Kota Kina ...

. Bongawan is noted for its two blocks of wooden shoplots, which were completed in 1939. They are among a few surviving pre-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

era shophouses surviving in Sabah. Most of the shops are operated by

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

traders, most of whom belong to the

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

dialect group. The town is also noted for the Borneo Golf and Country Club, an 18-hole golf course designed by

Jack Nicklaus Jack William Nicklaus (born January 21, 1940), nicknamed The Golden Bear, is a retired American professional golfer and List of golf courses designed by Jack Nicklaus, golf course designer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest go ...

. The course plays 6546 metres off the championship tees and is spread out over 200 acres on a 900-acre site.

Education

Primary school

* SK Viging Ulu * SK Ulu Lumagar * SK Sumbiling * SK Pekan Bongawan * SK Nyaris-Nyaris * SK Mandahan * SJK (C) Bong Hwa

Secondary school

*SMK Bongawan

Etymology

The name ''Bongawan'' comes from the

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

word ''Bangau'', which means 'egrets'. These birds are commonly seen in the paddy fields surrounding the town.

References

Towns in Sabah {{Sabah-geo-stub