Ipoh Old Town

Ipoh Old Town, on the west side of Sungai Kinta. (3 May 2016)


Ipoh Old Town is the original part of Ipoh town that developed in the 1880's. It is located to the west of the Kinta River, and is the small area from the Ipoh Railway Station all the way to the river. On this travel guide, let me help you explore the sights in Ipoh Old Town with map and GPS coordinates. Just key in the coordinates into your GPS device to be naviagates to the sights listed.

Map of Ipoh Old Town

Places of Interest and Heritage Sites in Ipoh Old Town

My wife and I at the Ipoh Railway Station, in the Ipoh Old Town (19 August 2006)

About Ipoh Old Town

The area where Ipoh is located has been settled as early as the 16th century, but it was little more than a collection of villages. Early settlers were Malays led by one Tok Keluang, son of a minor chieftain of Upper Perak. After his father Tok Sabang was defeated and liquidated by Sultan Mudzaffar Shah, the first Sultan of Perak (and son of Sultan Mahmud Shah, the last sultan of Malacca who was deposed by the Portuguese), Tok Keluang fled down the Perak River and up its tributary, the Kinta River, where he founded a settlement that would become Ipoh.

Jalan Dato Maharajalela in Ipoh Old Town.

For the subsequent two hundred years, there was nothing of significance happening in Ipoh until the late part of the 19th century, when one of the richest tin deposits in Malaya were discovered in the Kinta Valley, centered on Ipoh. The resulting boom propelled Ipoh to become the fastest growing and richest town in Malaya, much to the chagrin of the people of Taiping, which had a head start in the tin mining industry, but was seeing its tin deposits depleting.

Tin mining created many rich Chinese tycoons in Ipoh, among them Yau Tet Shin, Leong Fee, Lam Look Ing and Chung Thye Phin. Many of these people owned mines not and businesses not only in Ipoh, but also in Taiping, Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Seremban and Singapore.

The central business district of Ipoh is in the Old Town. This is where you find the main branches of banks. The court house, post office and other government buildings are all on this part of town.

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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.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.