Decode Encoded Unicode string (field html-instruction) on Google Maps API response

decode_unicode_google_maps_api.php

<?php

// Lets say , we want to send a direction request with guidance to Google Maps API using link below. 
// https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/directions/json?origin=-6.190109,%20106.798565&destination=-6.177596,%20106.792611&key=USEYOUR_KEY
// some of request, especially in field html-instruction would return unicode html text like this one ('Head \u003cb\u003ewest\u003c/b\u003e'). 
// for some reason, I just want to use the text provided there ('Head west').
// after some googling and asking, here is the best code I have (right now)

# example response
//Type A : There are 2 sentence in one single direction response 
$str = "Turn \u003cb\u003eleft\u003c/b\u003e to stay on \u003cb\u003eJl. Letjen S. Parman\u003c/b\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"font-size:0.9em\"\u003ePass by Slipi Kemanggisan (on the right in 1.2&nbsp;km)\u003c/div\u003e";
//Type B : There are 1 sentence in one single direction response 
$str = "Head \u003cb\u003ewest\u003c/b\u003e";

// use to delete all unicode string found on str variable, unicode is detected by \uxxxx
$new_str = preg_replace_callback('/\\\\u([0-9a-fA-F]{4})/', function ($match) {
                    return mb_convert_encoding(pack('H*', $match[1]), 'UTF-8', 'UCS-2BE');
                }, $str);

// when there are new line in sentence using div, we will insert ". " string before it
$prefix = ". ";
$new_str = substr_replace($new_str, $prefix, strpos($new_str, "<div"), 0);

// sometimes the result of previous code is like this :
// A. ". Head west"
// B. "Turn left to stay on Jl. Letjen S. Parman. Pass by Slipi Kemanggisan (on the right in 1.2 km)" 
// then if it turns out the sentence response only 1 (like described in example A), we will just delete the prefix using code below
if (substr($new_str, 0, strlen($prefix)) == $prefix) {
   $new_str = substr($new_str, strlen($prefix));
} 

// remove all html tags
$direction = strip_tags($new_str);
echo $direction;

#credit 
#https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2934563/how-to-decode-unicode-escape-sequences-like-u00ed-to-proper-utf-8-encoded-cha