Ipoh When Tin Was King

She did not become the capital of the State of Perak until she had reached the Biblical age of three score and ten, and even then not by the deliberation of her founders or administrators but by the fiat of a brief wartime occupier. She was not even the capital of the Kinta district, although within twenty years of her existence, she had far outstripped the district’s administrative headquarters.

In spite of being sidelined as an official town by the colonial government, Ipoh could still consider herself the most favoured of Malayan towns. For she had one thing in abundance – TIN! Tin gave Ipoh more millionaires than any other Malayan town; it gave her confidence and vibrancy; it gave her a soul. Ipoh When Tin Was King is the story of Ipoh’s Golden Age, an era that is now shrouded in the mist of time, but which present-day Ipohites can take pride in and draw inspiration from.