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Clockwise from top right:
A typical morning in Ipoh begins with a cup of white coffee.
Sam Poh Tong is a popular temple named after 14th century former Chinese admiral Zheng He.
Kek Lok Tong temple is in a limestone cave.
Shops with Chinese and Malay signs line the narrow streets of Ipoh's old town area.
The fishing village of Kuala Sepetang in Taiping is a good choice to enjoy the sunset.
The railway station is just one example of Ipoh's colonial-era heritage. Photos by Wang Kaihao and Provided to China Daily
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Wang Kaihao visits two northern towns of Malaysia, which brings back memories of China during his childhood days.
The first thing that comes to my mind about Ipoh is: It is the hometown of famous Hong Kong actress Michelle Yeoh, who starred in global hits, such as the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies and Memoirs of a Geisha.
Little did I know that this Malaysian city is home to a huge Chinese diaspora. Chinese people make up some 70 percent of the population.
The capital of northern Perak (which means "tin" in the Malay language) State, has been a well-known tin mining capital since the late 19th century, attracting scores of laborers from China's Guangdong province, who braved the South China Sea in search of fortune.
Thus, when taking the electric train northwards from Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur, I expected to see many mines on the way.
But I did not see any.
The ore in Ipoh has almost been dug up and the collapse of the tin market in the mid-1980s led to depression in the industry. Despite that, the influence of the early immigrants can be felt deep in the veins of the city.
A typical morning in Ipoh begins with a cup of white coffee in a coffee shop or kopitiam as the locals call it. The word kopitiam is a combination of the words "coffee" in Malay language and "shop" in the Chinese dialects of Fujian or Chaozhou.
This cream-colored coffee roasted in margarine was the brainchild of a local Chinese and has become a symbol of Ipoh for over a century. Unlike some coffee, which has a slightly sour taste, the smooth and mellow Ipoh white coffee suits my palate perfectly.
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