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Ipoh (latitude 4.60°N, longitude 101.07°E) is a city in Malaysia, the capital city of the Perak state, located to the north of Kuala Lumpur. It takes approximately 2 hours to drive to Ipoh from Kuala Lumpur with a distance of approximately 200 km (125 miles).
History
The name Ipoh originated from a local tree known as the pokok ipoh. This particular plant is known for its tree sap which is poisonous and is used by the orang asli in their blowdarts. Ipoh is also known as san cheng which means "city surrounded by mountains" in Mandarin.
Ipoh is located in the rich tin bearing valley of the Kinta river. It grew up as a mining town. For that reason, Ipoh's growth has stagnated ever since the development of the country and the closure of the tin mines, causing emigration to other parts of Malaysia, particularly Kuala Lumpur. In spite of this, Ipoh still remains one of Malaysia's largest cities, with a population of 637,200 (2004) and urban area population of 798,800 (2004), placing it in the top five cities in Malaysia by population. Cantonese is widely spoken by the Chinese population in Ipoh.
Ipoh has one of the cleanest and clearest water supply in Malaysia, as the source is from the waterfalls in nearby Tanjung Rambutan (the Hospital Bahagia, well-known mental hospital in Malaysia, is located within Tanjung Rambutan).
It is an urban legend that Ipoh generally has the prettiest girls. The living proof is on an Ipoh girl who is well-known throughout the world today. [Refer to Famous People from Ipoh]
Food
Ipoh is famous for its fruits and nuts. (Pomeloes from Tambun, peanuts from Menglembu and durians are famous throughout Malaysia). Ipoh is also famous for its cuisine. Natives claim that the water in the area, which is relatively hard due to Ipoh being located amongst a large karstic formation, makes the food especially tasty.
Famous examples of Ipoh food/drink are:
1.Ipoh chicken rice or tauge ayam, which consists of chicken meat, assorted chicken innards and beansprouts boiled in the abovementioned hard water and served with soy sauce and sesame oil; and Ipoh Sar Hor Fun, which are rice noodles prepared in the hard water and served in a clear chicken and prawn soup with chicken shreds, prawns and spring onions.
2. Ipoh Fragrant Biscuit (heong peng). The recommended brand is Yee Hup. Originally produced in a village house in Gunung Rapat, it is now operating in a shophouse along Jalan Raja Musa Mahadi.
3. Fish ball noodles/yong tau foo. Some of the recommended outlets are Nam Fatt in Jalan Kampar and Tai Kar Lok with branches in Greentown and Ipoh Garden South.
4. Ipoh White Coffee, which are coffee beans specially roasted (with butter). Its colour is similar to cappucino. The best can be found in the few coffee shops located opposite the Kinta Heights flats in Ipoh old town. The aroma, taste & texture are definitely superior compared to the commercially-packed sachets or the Ipoh White Coffee sold elsewhere. These coffee shops are likely to be crowded during teatime, especially on weekends. Food-wise, you can get fried noodles/vermicelli, satay, congee, kuih, etc. sold in these coffee shops. Nowadays you can get good white coffee in coffee shops around Ipoh.
5. Dim sum (fish balls, fried stuffs, dumplings, buns, etc. served in small quantities). Restoran Foh San, located nearby the tauge ayam outlets, is the best. It has a branch in SS2 Petaling Jaya, the satellite town of Kuala Lumpur. Yuk Fook Moon Lau, located behind Excelsior Hotel, sells excellent dim sum too.
6. Chow hor fun or Kueteow basah, rice noodles fried in such a way that it is a little wet with dark gravy (as opposed to the Penang char kueteow which has no gravy but fried with egg, prawns or cockels and the Cantonese-style wat tan ho which is completely immersed in clear, egg gravy). You can get chow hor fun in all Chinese restaurants in Ipoh.
7. Banquet dining restaurants (usually for holding Chinese wedding dinners) which serve excellent seafood and meat. The famous ones among Ipoh natives are Mun Zhong restautant in Jalan Pasir Puteh, Pusing Mun Zhong in Ipoh town, Tung Hoi in Menglembu & branch in Ipoh Garden South, Lee How Fook restaurant in Ipoh town near Jalan Yang Kalsom.
Places of Interest
Famous attractions in Ipoh include Kellie's Castle, which is the deserted mansion of an eccentric English planter half an hour's drive from Ipoh city centre. Its main appeal lies in the belief that it is haunted and that secret passages leading to hidden chambers exist.
The school building of St Michael's Institution (SMI) [refer to Schools] is an architectural masterpiece.
Another sight worth seeing is the Sam Po Tong (Cavern of Three Precious) temple, which is a Chinese temple built within a gigantic limestone cave. It houses a few giant tortoises too. Its sister temple, Perak Tong (Perak Cave), has a steep, tall staircase in the interior of the cave rising up to the top of its hill where one is greeted by a panoramic view of Ipoh and its surroundings. The statue of Buddha in Perak Tong is the tallest and largest of its kind in Malaysia. Both these cavern temples have decent vegetarian food.
If you don't like the incense-filled air in these two temples, you can visit the Kek Lok Tong (Cavern of Utmost Happiness), a temple that lies on the other side of the same range of limestone hills as Sam Po Tong but only accessible through housing area. Hence, Kek Lok Tong has a cleaner, quieter and more cooling environment.
Today, Ipoh has developed significantly. The Greentown area near the City Council is fast becoming an entertainment hotspot with the construction of the Greentown Business Center, where restaurants and cafes are abundant. Ipoh's very own 'Bangsar' (akin to Bangsar in Kuala Lumpur) is located in Ipoh Garden behind Kinta City shopping mall, and is one of the famous places for its nightspots. The UK giant retailer, Tesco, has just opened a new outlet in this area.
The recently opened Lost World of Tambun is expected to serve as Ipoh's own "Bandar Sunway" (the actual "Bandar Sunway" is located about 15 km east of Kuala Lumpur). It will have a theme park similar to the Sunway Lagoon, a branch of Sunway University College, new commercial and housing areas. Within the Lost World of Tambun, there is a natural hot spring too.
Schools
There are several schools with decades of established history, namely:
i) Sam Tet School (Sam Tet)
ii) St Michael's Institution (SMI) and
iii) Main Convent
[(i) to (iii) are run by the Catholic church]
iv) Anderson School (Anderson)
v) Anglo-Chinese School (ACS) Ipoh
Anderson remains a stronghold of hockey on national level, while Sam Tet school is a Chinese-medium school famous for its track record in the Malaysian pre-university level, STPM. Year after year, the school will have one of the highest numbers of students who achieve full 5 A1s. Main Convent on the other hand is very good at producing good debate teams, choral-speaking choirs and of course, a Bond Girl...
Famous People from Ipoh
One of Ipoh's most famous natives is actress Dato' Michelle Yeoh, who acted in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. She is an alumnus of Main Convent Ipoh.
The Hong Kong actress Angie Cheung Wai Yee was also born in Ipoh.
Taiwan-based singer, Michael Wong (Guang Liang), from the former Michael & Victor (Guang Liang Pin Guan) duet, was a student of Sam Tet school.
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