Ipoh

Welcome to Ipoh

Ipoh, the state capital of Perak and third-biggest city in Malaysia. It grew rich on the tin trade, which transformed it within the space of forty years at the end of the nineteenth century from a tiny kampung in a landscape dominated by dramatic limestone outcrops to a sprawling boom town. Now a metropolis of over half a million people, Ipoh is a far cry from the original village on this site. Perak had been renowned for its rich tin deposits since the sixteenth century, which made it vulnerable to attempts from rival chiefs to seize the throne and thus gain control of the lucrative tin trade. However, it wasn't until the discovery of a major field in 1880 that Ipoh's fortunes turned; before long it became a prime destination for pioneers, merchants and fortuneseekers from all over the world, and a cosmopolitan city, something reflected in the broad mix of cultures today. To accommodate the rapidly increasing population, between 1905 and 1914 the city expanded across Sungei Kinta into a "new town" area, its economic good fortune reflected in a multitude of colonial buildings and Chinese mansions.