Spaoh is a small town and a sub-district in Betong District,

Betong Division Betong Division, formed on 26 March 2002, is one of the twelve administrative divisions in Sarawak, Malaysia. Formerly part of Sri Aman Division, Betong is in the Saribas area. It has a total area of 4,180.8 square kilometres, and is the smal ...

in the state of

Sarawak Sarawak (; ) is a state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the Malaysian state of Sabah to the northeast, ...

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 ...

. Geographically (not administratively), Spaoh is divided into areas such as Ili Pasar Spaoh (Spaoh downriver),Buda Area, Paku Ili (Brutan), Ulu Paku and Ulu Anyut.

History

Small Spaoh was established by the Chinese People

Hakka Chinese Hakka (, , ) forms a language group of varieties of Chinese, spoken natively by the Hakka people throughout Southern China and Taiwan and throughout the diaspora areas of East Asia, Southeast Asia and in overseas Chinese communities around th ...

in 1946. Back then, there were four blocks of shops, with eight shops in each block. These four blocks of shops encircled Spaoh Wharf. Presently, the Spaoh town still consists of these four block of shops.

Economy

The town throve in the 1960s following the boom in rubber prices. Rubber products were shipped out from Spaoh to

Kuching Kuching (), officially the City of Kuching, is the capital and the most populous city in the state of Sarawak in Malaysia. It is also the capital of Kuching Division. The city is on the Sarawak River at the southwest tip of the state of Sara ...

via the small settlement of Pusa. By the 1970s, the town's economy started to decline due to competition from other towns and settlements nearly especially Debak Town.

References

Betong District Towns in Sarawak {{Sarawak-geo-stub