Kampar, Perak

Kampar are within the famous area of Kinta valley which encompassed Batu Gajah, Chemor, Gopeng, Kampar, Kota Bharu, Malim Nawar, Kuala Dipang, Sungei Siput, Lahat, Pengkalan Pegoh, Menglembu, Papan, Pusing, Siputeh, Sungei Raia, Kampong Kepayan, Tambun, Ampang, Tanjong Rambutan, Tanjong Tualang, Tronoh, Ipoh

Kampar is a town in the state of Perak, Malaysia. It is situated due south of Simpang Pulai. It was a tin mining town which boomed during the heights of the tin mining industry. There used to be many tin mines on the outskirts of Kampar, but most have closed down following the collapse of the industry. Kampar was established in 1887.

Kampar booms and busts followed the vicissitudes of the mining industry. Most of them were established in the late 19th century, flourished in the 1900s, only to stagnate and decline after World War I, with the exception of an exhilarating boom in the 1920s.

Kampar had its share of bloodbath during the Japanese Occupation in 1941 to 1945. Between December 30 1941 to 2 January 1942, a battle between 3000 British personnel and over 6000 Japanese soldiers erupted. This battle is vividly documented and highlighted by famous Kampar historian, Chye Kooi Loong. (See link below)

Origin of Name

The name Kampar was derived from the Cantonese words kam pou, which means 'precious gold'. This refers to the town's previously large tin reserves.

== Geography ==- Kampar is situated in Kinta Valley, which was well-known for its high tin ore reserves. Many KLites spend their weekends here. Its vast surroundings as well as abandoned mining-ponds are suitable for fishing makes it an ideal place for a well-deserved break.

It is about 30 minutes drive south from the state capital, Ipoh.
It is about 40 minutes drive from Kampar to Teluk Intan (Westward from Kampar)
It is about 15 minutes drive from Kampar to Gopeng (Plus highway exit)
It is about 15 mins drive from Kampar to Tapah (Plus highway exit) southwards from Kampar.
It is about 30 minutes drive from Kampar to Bidor (Plus highway exit) southwards from Kampar.
It is about 12 minutes drive from Kampar town to Gua Tempurung northwards from Kampar.

Transportation

Kampar express bus stop which have direct bus to Butterworth, Singapore and KL is located in the town area. Above the express bus stop is the Target supermarket. The Kampar local town bus stop which serve Ipoh, Teluk Intan, Tapah, Malim Nawar and other areas in the vicinity is located within walking distance of less than 100 meters from the express bus stop. Utar and TAR college buses are also available for free pickup service for their students around the vicinity.

Taxi are available around the local town bus stop.

Express bus from Kampar to KLIA is also available in Kampar. However, it is not located at the bus stop. It is located besides Magnum 3D premises in Kampar(Besides SRK Methodist ACS Kampar).

How to get here : From KL, you will have to specify Kampar as your destination or else the express bus will just bypass Kampar through the NS-Highway to Ipoh. Bus company from puduraya with direct bus from Kl to Kampar are Edaran, Super Ria, Konsortium and Parit Express. Bus tickets are around RM11.50. The ride takes about 2 1/2 hours.

It would be pleasant, but not advisable to travel by train for it is not very frequent and it takes more than 4 hours. The ticket costs about the same as buses.

From Ipoh, you can take the Kinta bus. Frequency is every half an hour. It takes about 50 minutes to get here. There are hourly express services by the same company.
From Teluk Intan, there are Hup Soon buses doing the honours.
From Tapah, Kamta buses charge RM1.10 and it's frequency is 20 minutes.

Accomodation

Grand Kampar Hotel (Bandar Baru Kampar, serving UTAR/KTAR areas)
Kam Tai Hotel (located at the entrance of Golden Dragon Garden)
Metro Hotel (Town centre)
Oriental Hotel (Town centre)

Demographics

Kampar have a population of 67753 people and space 39,109 hectares [2]. The majority of the town's population is of Chinese descent. Other races such as Malays and Indians make up the rest of Kampar's population. The town also has a sizable Punjabi community. Perhaps Kampar is now well known for its wide range of delicacies all within 10 minutes walk!

Culture

Festivals are celebrated in style here too. Although the town is crowded with people on almost every occasion, Chinese New Year is the event to look forward to here. Lots of activities take place during this time such as lion-dances, fire-crackers and cultural performances. However, one should think twice about visiting Kampar on a festive holiday due to the enormous number of people returning to visit loved ones here. The traffic jams caused by the number of vehicles here could easily irritate one with little patience. Sometimes, it takes almost an hour just to travel 1 km!

Economy

In the 19th and most of 20th century, the economy of Kampar revolved around tin-mining. However, many tin-mining companies were forced out of business during the economic recession in the 1980s. Nevertheless, the town's economy recovered slowly by the end of 1980s.

Since the completion of the North-South Highway, Kampar's status as a bustling town has declined rapidly. Travellers stopped frequenting the town as they chose the more convenient highway. The nearest exit from highway is in Tapah, which is pretty inconvenient for travellers. The town is not so much abandoned as conveniently forgotten.

At present, the commercial and industrial sectors are main driving forces of Kampar's economy. More recently, its economy is further driven by the construction of the new Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) campus. Besides that, a Tesco Hypermarket is confirmed to be built (opens in Sept 2008) nearby UTAR area.

Currently available supermarkets in kampar are Minat supermarket and Target supermarket. Located witin 300 meter of each other. It is near the bus stop.Besides these supermarkets daily consumables can be obtain conveniently from the many Chinese retail shops located all over kampar. Some are as good as small scale supermarket with modern shop design.

Major Banks are available such as Maybank, CIMB, Pulic bank, Am bank, Bank Pertanian, Hong leong bank, BSN.
Insurance Agent such as Kurnia Insurance
Investment Company such as OSK
Many jewelry shops
Private clinics are noticeable in kampar
Perhaps the most striking phenomena is there are lots of coffee shops/eateries in kampar with at least 2 shops in one row of 10 pre-war shop lot and it is full of customer morning and even afternoon.
KFC and pizza huts are available.
Many modern cafes are open in kampar lately

Education

Kampar is currently a centre of tertiary education with a campus of Tunku Abdul Rahman College and a new campus of Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman. Kampar is also served by various primary and secondary schools. With an estimated combined capacity of more than 20,000 students, these two institutions are touted to be the two instruments that will restore the town to its former glory. Other private institution of higher learning are Kolej Menara Jaya and Kolej Sri Ayu Among the more famous government schools around are

SMK Methodist ACS Kampar
SMJK(C)Pei Yuan
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Entertainment

Following the opening of the two new institutions of higher learning, the area surrounding the two campuses have become bustling districts, with various food outlets, restaurants, cafes and cyber cafes sprouting up. Students and locals can be seen patronizing the mamak stalls in the wee hours of the night.

Famous residents

Datin Paduka Seri Endon Mahmood - late wife of current Prime Minister of Malaysia, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Eric Moo - a Taiwan-based singer, composer and producer, was born here. He has currently shifted his attention towards China.
Olivia Lum - founder of water treatment company Hyflux in Singapore.
Chang Mun Kee, aka Mark Chang - founder of JOBSTREET
Yeap Wai Kiang, Professor,phD - One of the earliest person researching Artificial Intelligence(AI) Technology.
Dr Tham Choy Yoong, Dr - attached to the astrophysics research group at Cavendish Laboratory Cambridge.Cavendish has led the world in many ground-breaking research that have won Nobel prizes. It was here that James Watson and Francis Crick won the Nobel prize for their discovery of the double helix of DNA.

Politics

(P70)Kampar is a Parliament seat under the Election Commission of Malaysia. Under this parliament seat, there are 3 state seats namely (S40) Malim Nawar, (S41) Keranji and (S42) Tualang Sekah.

The parliament seat is a traditional fight between the Democratic Action Party (DAP) and Barisan Nasional (represented by Malaysia Chinese Association, MCA). Current member of parliament is Y.B. Tan Sri Dato Hew See Tong from BN. In the last election he won by the statistics of,

1. Hew See Tong (MCA): 23,129
2. Liew Ah Kim (DAP): 13,655

Spoilt Votes: 1,542
Majority: 9,474
Winner: Hew See Tong
Votes Cast: 38, 326
Total Voters: 60, 874

Famous Food

Kampar is famous for its food. For example, Fish ball noodles, Chicken Biscuit, Claypot rice, Prawn Mee, Rice Noodles (Cantonese = "Lai Fun"), char kuay teow, wan tan mee, lor mai fan (glutinous rice), ham kok chai, ice kacang, and many more. Two types of food that made their way out of Kampar town itself and is synonymous with Kampar are : Kampar Chicken Biscuit and Kampar Fishball Noodle.

The Kampar Chicken Biscuit is so famous that it has spawn a whole series of 'chicken biscuit' producers. The Patriach of the family was Leong Kow, whose grandfather came from China. He has 7 sons, and 7 daughters.

The original recipe for the biscuit actually came from Leong Kow's family line, and that family line came from Nam Hoi, China. It is said that the recipe came from that little village in China, along with Leong Kow's grandfather. And that line of family comes as a baker's family line.

Not long after Leong Kow died, his eldest son, Leong Pak Lum, decided to return from KL (where he operated a coffeeshop called Oi Kuan in Cecil Street) to Kampar, and started to pick recipe from the family recipe book. While Pak Lum's family worked to produce the biscuits (among which was Chicken Biscuit), his 3rd brother, Leong Moon Lum, was the coffeeshop owner of 123, Jalan Idris - Wing Lok Yuen. (Which means "Forever Happy Restaurant"). It is through this restaurant front, that Leong Moon Lum helped to sell those biscuits for his brother, Leong Pak Lum.

For some reason, both brothers had a disagreement, and each went their own way. Leong Pak Lum had then established a line of Chicken Biscuit called CB chicken biscuit. And Leong Moon Lum, together with his wife, Ong Siew May, started a company called May Moon, and improvised on the family recipe, and started another line of Chicken Biscuit, called May Moon (the name means "Thoroughly complete/fulfilling").

Thus, from one single family recipe, two companies, with two different recipe for Chicken Biscuit was introduced in the market. The famous biscuit draw a few other (mainly from Telok Anson), who tried to replicate the biscuit to get a market share.

As for Kampar Fishball Noodle, its relationship with the town Kampar goes back a long way as well, with another family. More importantly, the locals call the stall "Lor Shee Fun" stall. The phrase "Lor Shee Fun" literally means "Mice Noodles", simply because the stall was famous for its funny looking noodles, that looked like Mice tails. And besides, the soup that comes with the noodles is tasty, not replicated by any others. Plus, the stall has a famous fish ball, called "chau yuen", or "deep-fried fishball", which I believe, is primarily why the stall is famous. The Kampar-style of preparing fishballs is different from other parts of the country. These chau-yuen (deep-fried fishball) made of finely blended fish and corn flour. One bite and you’ll notice the difference because it is crunchy on the outside and gummy inside. A hand-made fishball costs about 60 sen. Next, there’s yuk-yuen, a special blend of smoked bacon and pork. This speciality has a totally different flavour compared to other meatballs of its class.

Other local cuisine of Kampar includes the chee cheong fun, where curry is often the preferred condiment. Chee Cheong Fun is a noodle made from rice flour which is steamed into sheets and chopped up into noodle like slivers. In Kampar it is frequently served with 2 types of tofu - tofu pok (fried tofu) and tofu chuen (brick tofu), along with assorted fish balls or chue pei (pig skin in curry). It is a delicious meal when finished off with the local chili sauce and green pickled chillis. Chee cheong fun is commonly eaten for breakfast or supper where a couple of stores are set up at the local market.

Kampar is also credited for the invention of `chicken in a bread'. `Min pau kai', literally `chicken bread' in Cantonese, is so sought after at one time that tourist buses are known to make a bee line to Kampar just to savour the delicacy.

For the uninitiated, the best place to sample Kampar food will be at the main Pasar in the morning. It's not that hard to find. Coming from Ipoh, take the first right past Maybank (to confirm, look for Jalan Ampang) and go straight till the end, passing 2 cross junctions. From KL, turn left one block after CIMB Bank and go straight. It's the same path as those coming from Ipoh.

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Gallery

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