Second City Origins ~ Asia Part 3

When I start a blog, I spend way too much time thinking about what to write in the Introduction. The same can be said about the Summary at the end too. I sometimes wish I hadn't set out a format that includes these, but then I think that if there weren't one, my inane drivel would be scattered amongst the main body of the blog. I mean, there is some there anyway, but without the introduction, it would be infinitely worse. So, please accept my apologies for past, present, and future "introductions" and "summaries" and for any useless information I happen to write about.

Now, onto the usual round-up of places we shall be visiting. We start in the Subcontinent, jump across to India's Teardrop and the tourist paradise of the Maldives, before travelling through the home of the Yeti and across the Gobi Desert. Then down through the "Middle Kingdom" to the Korean Peninsula before ending up across the East China Sea in the "Land of the Rising Sun".

The area around Karachi has been inhabited for many millennia, although the city was only founded in 1729. Today it is the largest city in Pakistan, and the country's industrial and financial centre. It was known as the "City of Lights" in the 1960s and 70s due to its nightlife.

The city was originally called Kolachi-jo-Goth in honour of a local fisherwoman, Mai Kolachi, who is said to have killed a crocodile that had already killed and eaten two of her sons. The name was corrupted over time, especially by Dutch seafarers who called it Karachee in a shipwreck report in 1742.

KARACHI = IN HONOUR OF MAI KOLACHI

Mumbai is the largest city in India, with an estimated population of 12.5 million. It is sometimes compared to New York City due to the stock exchange and its nickname of "The City That Never Sleeps." Mumbai handles 70% of India's sea trade due to its large port and is home to the majority of India's film industry.

Formerly known as Bombay during the days of the British Raj, it is said that Bombay was a corruption of Mumbai anyway. The etymology of the name is disputed, although it may have come from the Koli language. It is thought to have derived from the goddess Mumba and from the Koli word for "mother."

MUMBAI = MOTHER

There is a small anomaly in this entry. Colombo is often still refered to as Sri Lanka's capital city, even in Sri Lanka. Some of the government agencies are still located there and the official capital of Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is located within it's suburban area. However in the world of JetPunk, Kotte, to use it's type-in, is the capital of Sri Lanka, so Colombo falls into the second city trap.

It's name does not derive from Christopher Columbus, although there is a connection! There are two main theories for the origin of Colombo.

Firstly, the name is thought to have been introduced by the Portuguese and comes from the Sinhala name of Kolon thota meaning "Port on the river Kelani"

Secondly, from another Sinhala phrase of Kola-amba-thota meaning "Harbour with leafy green mango trees". This ties up with the local Ambo tree which grows mangos. The name of this tree was corrupted to Colambo, which Christians corrupted to Columbo to honour Mr. Columbus.

COLOMBO = HARBOUR (Either "ON THE RIVER KELANI" or "WITH MANGO TREES")

I will hazard a guess that this is the youngest entry in this blog, even the whole series. The island that this city sits on didn't exist prior to 1997 at the start of the project to reclaim land from the sea to alleviate the overcrowding on the nearby island housing Male the capital of Maldives.

I couldn't find a definitive etymology online, I must have trawled through dozens of travel blogs, Maldives based websites, and even a government report on the construction of the island, to no avail. I can only assume that the name is a corruption of the capital Male and of the adjoining island containing the airport, Hulhule Island. When mashed together you get Hulhumale.

HULHUMALE = HULHULE AND MALE COMBINED

Pokhara is known as the tourist capital of Nepal, due to the large numbers of mountaineers and explorers that come to the city to discover the Annapurna Ranges of the Himalayas. It is situated on the shores of Phewa Lake, the second largest in Nepal.

The name of the city derives from the Nepali word, Pokhari meaning "pond". The city of Pokhara has numerous lakes and ponds.

POKHARA = POND

Chittagong has been a port city for centuries, due to its natural deep harbour. It was the base for Allied Forces during the Burma Campaign of World War II and is still host to the largest Naval Base in Bangladesh. The majority of the countries exports travel through the city.

The local Bengali name for the city is Chattogram, the suffix "-gram" meaning village. Chatto could be derived from chaitya, the name for Buddhist monasteries. Another theory is that it comes from an Arabic name, shatt ghangh, meaning "delta of the Ganges"

CHITTAGONG = VILLAGE OF MONASTREIES or DELTA OF THE GANGES

Phuntsholing, or Phuentsholing, is a town on the India-Bhutan border with a thriving economy. It is considered the Gateway to Bhutan for Indian trade. The city was the site of the assassination of the Bhutanese Prime Minister in 1964.

According to the "Hello Bhutan" Facebook page, Phuntsholing and other border towns carried the same name as their Indian counterparts. This caused havoc with the postal service, so several monks were tasked with coming up with different names. Phuntsholing was said to mean "The place of prosperity"

PHUNTSHOLING = PLACE OF PROSPERITY

Erdenet is one of the youngest settlements in Mongolia, it was founded in 1974 to exploit the large copper deposits in the area. Large numbers of Soviet engineers and miners lived in the town until the fall of the Soviet Union, when most returned home. The copper mine, run by the Erdenet Mining Company, is the world's fourth largest.

Whether the city was named after the mining company or vice versa is unclear. The only reference to the meaning of the name is from a user-submitted entry on the "Behind The Placename" website that states Erdenet means "with treasure".

ERDENET = WITH TREASURE

According to various sources, Shanghai is the most populated city in China, so it fits our list because it's not the capital. It was originally a small fishing village, but grew in importance in the 19th century due to increasing foreign trade and it's ideal location as a port city. Shanghai has been described as the "showcase of the Chinese economy".

The name can be split into two, corresponding with the Chinese characters used in the name. Shang and hai meaning respectively "upon" and "sea". Chinese historians have concluded that the name was given when the settlement was a village that was below sea level and thus appeared to be "upon the sea."

SHANGHAI = UPON THE SEA

The known history of Hamhung dates back to the 12th century when it was called Hamju. The city's name is used in the modern Korean expression, "Kings Envoy To Hamhung" or hamhŭngchasa which refers to someone who goes on a journey but never heard of again. This phrase comes from a group that was sent to the founder of the Yi Dynasty exiled in Hamhung in 1400 following a coup, but never returned.

When the name changed from Hamju to Hamhung, the changed name translated to "town that will prosper". Quite ironic when you consider the town was the worst hit during the famine of the 1990s.

HAMHUNG = TOWN THAT WILL PROSPER

There is evidence of habitation in the area of Busan dating back to Neolithic times, and many Bronze Age artifacts have been found. The port of Busan was established in 1423 as the country was trading with Japan at that time. It was one of the few cities not captured by North Korea during the Korean war.

The city has been called Pusan, a romanised version of the name , and Fuzan, a Japanese translation of the name. However the name Busan comes from the Sino-Korean language and translates to "Cauldron Mountain", a reference to the former name of nearby Mt Hwangnyeong.

BUSAN = CAULDRON MOUNTAIN

Yokohama is a cosmopolitan port city and was one of the first to trade internationally following the end of Japan's "policy of seclusion" in the 19th century. Yokohama was also the first city to boast an English language newspaper, gas lamps, railway station, and power plant. It has the headquarters of many large companies including Nissan, JVC, and Isuzu.

The city gets its name from a sandbar that was just off the coast and was the site of the original fishing village. It translates to "horizontal beach".

YOKOHAMA = HORIZONTAL BEACH

Well, here we are again. Yet another summary that I am struggling with, I've no idea what to type, so again I'll just wing it and tap away on the keyboard like a monkey with a typewriter trying to write the Complete Works of Shakespeare. An illustration known as The Infinite Monkey Theorem apparently.

Next time we shall complete the Asian section of this blog by traveling into Indo-China and the island nations of South Asia before the next section, the daunting Oceania. I'm not looking forward to that one. I think it may be difficult to find second cities, never mind their etymology, but we shall see. I've got to finish Asia first!

So, in the words of the aforementioned William Shakespeare, the Baird of Stratford, "Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow" from Romeo and Juliet (Act II, Scene II if you're interested, don't say I never bring you culture!).