INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE OF PERAK : TAIPING

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Taiping is one of the greenest city I saw in Southeast Asia. Large parts of the city are gardens with old trees. It was so comforting to walk along these gardens. I was here on Sunday, 20 October 2018, with Taufik, a local guide, and Law Siak Hong, former President of Perak Heritage Society. I wanted to observe Taiping as one of the former tin mining capitals in Malaysia.

I was organizing workshop and training in Muntok, West Bangka, Indonesia, about how to develop Muntok as the former tin mining town. Observation of Taiping (and other former tin mining towns) will be useful and informative, not to compare each other but to get insights and various angles.

In Taiping area, we visited the Perak Muzeum that showed nothing at all about tin mining history of the region, Kerian and Larut Dan Matang, a cute small town, and Kamunting areas. 

Layers of history are relatively obvious in these places although new development such as houses and shopping malls press history deeper to the bottom. Former tin mining are usually covered with water and muds become open spaces waiting for investors to cover them and transform into new functions.










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