Penang Chinese Town Hall

Penang Chinese Town Hall (7 January 2022)


Penang Chinese Town Hall (GPS: 5.41912, 100.33901) is an organisation created by the Chinese merchant-class in Penang to look after their interest. It was founded in 1880-81. Until then, the role of looking after the needs of the Chinese in Penang was played by the Kong Hock Keong Temple, better known as the Kuan Im Teng.

The Penang Riots of 1867 and the Larut Wars from 1860 to 1874 pointed to the failure of the Kong Hock Keong in its role as mediator looking after both the spiritual as well as secular affairs of the community. The founding of the Penang Chinese Town Hall enabled the Kong Hock Keong to continue in its role as guardian of the community's spiritual affairs, while a group of merchants, pillars of the local society, assumed that as guardian of the non-spiritual needs.

The largest single donor to the establishment of the Chinese Town Hall was Kapitan Cina Chung Keng Kwee, one of the few Chinese the British felt at ease to deal with. He put forth 600 Imperial Yuan to its establishment. He took on the role as the first president of the Chinese Town Hall, from 1881 to 1883. (The aforementioned date however does not agree with the organisation's constitution, which stated an established year of 1875; the matter is at the moment still under further research).

Today the Penang Chinese Town Hall occupies a 12-storey office block along Pitt Street between the Kuan Im Teng and the St George's Anglican Church.

Penang Chinese Town Hall is on the Map of Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling, Penang

Penang Chinese Town Hall (23 April 2009)


Another view of the Penang Chinese Town Hall (24 February 2007)

Private Guided Tours of Penang

If you are seeking private guided tours of Penang, message Penang Tour Guides at penangtourguides@gmail.com and enquire with them.

 Buy, rent or sell properties in Penang

Do you have a property for sale or to rent out? Are you looking to buy or rent a property? Get in touch with me. WhatsApp me (Timothy Tye) at 012 429 9844, and I will assign one of my property agents to serve you. I will choose the agent for you, according to your property needs. So when you message me, provide me some details of what you need, whether to sell, to buy, to rent or to rent out, and what type of property, is it condo, apartment, house, shop, office or land.

 Latest updates on Penang Travel Tips

Map of Roads in Penang

Looking for information on Penang? Use this Map of Roads in Penang to zoom in on information about Penang, brought to you road by road.

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.