At the George Town Waterfront Diorama

At the George Town Waterfront (2 November 2013)


"At the George Town Waterfront" is a diorama masterpiece. A year in the making, it features a scene at the bustling waterfront of late 19th century George Town. The massive land reclamation of 1883 had extended the shoreline outwards, leading to the creation of a new waterfront named Weld Quay, after Frederick Weld.

At the George Town Waterfront, we see coolies labouring to shoulder the cargo from tongkangs, under the watchful eye of their stern overseers and supervisors. Further in, ricksaws carried wealthy passengers along.

Forming the backdrop is a row of stately mercantile buildings that house German and British trading companies. Their address runs from right to left (geographically, north to south), beginning with 1 Weld Quay, then 2 Weld Quay, and so on. As I write this, they are all well preserved buildings, many of which presently undergoing restoration. They are Boustead & Co, Schmidt, Küstermann & Co, Behn Meyer (which houses the Made In Penang Interactive Museum today), Schiffman, Herr & Company and Behr Brothers Trading Company.

"At the George Town Waterfront" is the work of master diorama sculptor Khoo Chooi Hooi. When Khoo was commissioned by the Made In Penang Interactive Museum to create a selection of dioramas, the museum never expected the magnitude of his ambition when he decided to depict a scene from the George Town waterfront during the late 19th century. In order to create the diorama, Khoo sieved through old postcards and photographs. He also took measurements of the buildings. The scene was created to scale at a ratio of 1:13. It measures about 10 meters in length. Material used include clay, polymer clay, wood, canvas and silicon.

The details in "At the George Town Waterfront" is a feast for the eye. Observant viewers will see, among others, a nasi kandar vendor, a European couple and even a kingfisher.

Ships arriving at the wharf, George Town Waterfront (2 November 2013)


Coolies umloading the bumboats, George Town Waterfront (2 November 2013)


Cargo loaded to the wharf at the George Town Waterfront (2 November 2013)


Coolie resting at the George Town Waterfront (2 November 2013)


Coolie resting at the George Town Waterfront (15 April 2014)


Chinese ear cleaner at work (15 April 2014)


Boats carrying cargo to the wharf (15 April 2014)


Bullock cart carrying cargo away (15 April 2014)


Muhibah (15 April 2014)


Kingfisher at the harbour (15 April 2014)


Nasi kandar (15 April 2014)

Made In Penang's Dioramas and Made In Penang Interactive Museum

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About this website

Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

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