"Kapit - Overnight stop between Sibu and Belaga" Kapit by Willettsworld

The town of Kapit is the capital of the Kapit District in the Kapit Division, Sarawak, on the south bank of the Rejang River. As of 2002, the district comprised a population of 60,200. I came here on my way up the Rejang River from Sibu to Belaga and visited the few sights there are here which include a fort, museum and Chinese temple.

Kapit was founded by Charles Brooke in 1880 as a garrison town. A fort was built here to prevent the Ibans from going upriver to attack the Orang Ulu settlements. Initially called Fort Kapit, the fort was renamed Fort Sylvia after the wife of Rajah Vyner Brooke. The Hoklo people, a subgroup of the Chinese Hokkien people, came to settle in Kapit shortly after the town was established and were joined by the Ka Chinese in 1906, and the Fuzhou Chinese in 1919. Kapit was totally destroyed by Allied bombings during the Second World War, and had to be rebuilt following the war.