Penang Island

Penang Island, as seen from SuperStar Libra cruiseliner. (30 September 2017)


Versi B. Melayu

Penang Island is the island portion of Penang State. Located on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, covers an area of 293 square kilometers (113 square miles). The highest elevation on Penang Island is at Penang Hill, which reaches 735 meters (2,411 feet).

Penang Island has been known and documented for centuries before Captain Francis Light landed there on 11 August, 1786, and renamed it the Prince of Wales Island, after King George IV of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, who was then the Prince of Wales.

The population of Penang Island is estimated at 750,000, as of 2010, giving it a population density of 2,559.7 people per square kilometer, which is two and a half times the population density of Penang Mainland (1,049 people per square kilometer in 2010), already the second most densely populated local government area in the country. (It is not the most densely populated city in the country; Petaling Jaya has a population density of 6600 per square kilometer) The eastern seaboard of Penang Island is one of the most densely populated places in Malaysia.

George Town, the capital of Penang State, is on Penang Island. It is on the northeastern tip of the island. Established with the founding of Prince of Wales Island in 1786, it is one of the oldest and biggest cities in the country. The inner city of George Town was inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site on 7 July, 2008.

The local authority of George Town was established as the Municipal Council of George Town in 1857. This was elevated to the George Town City Council by a royal decree from Queen Elizabeth II on 1 January, 1957, providing for local election of the mayor. Penang Island was a free port until 1969, when its free port status was revoked. In 1974, a revamp of the local authority saw the merger of the George Town City Council with the Penang Rural District Council, to create a local government management board which was later replaced with the Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP) through the Local Government Act, 1976. On 10 March, 2015, the Cabinet of Malaysia approved the creation of the Penang Island City Council (MBPP) to replace the Penang Island Municipal Council, backdating to be effective on 1 January, 2015.

Penang Island is connected to the mainland by the ferry, the Penang Bridge and the Sultan Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah Bridge. The central portion of the island is still largely forested, while the northwestern tip of the island is the location of the Penang National Park, the smallest national park in the country.

Map of Penang Island

Places on Penang Island

View of Penang Island from R&R Bagan Ajam. (11 December 2017)

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.

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Map of Roads in Penang

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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.