Heritage, coffee and people among Ipoh’s appeal

Arlene House, the Kapitan Chung Thye Pin heritage building, is now a shop and gallery.

IPOH and its attractions have been steadily gaining global recognition over the last decade.

The former tin-mining town has received accolades from publications and organisations, including Lonely Planet, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (Unesco) and CNN.

Last year, Ipoh was officially designated City of Music by Unesco’s Creative Cities Network (UCCN).

It is one of 55 new cities to join the list, which was announced in conjunction with World Cities Day.

In 2022, CNN Travel named Ipoh on its list of “18 of Asia’s most underrated places”.

It cited the Ipoh white coffee, limestone hills and caves, and a few heritage buildings as the city’s attractions.

This year, the popular Ipoh white coffee was also ranked 10th in the list of Top 39 Coffees in the World by TasteAtlas.

Among the benefits of living in Ipoh are its clean and fresh air along with its relaxed lifestyle.

In 2016, the world’s largest travel guide Lonely Planet named Ipoh as one of the best destinations in Asia.

The city was ranked sixth and among the best places to visit in 2017.

Ipoh was the only city in Malaysia then to make it into the top 10 best destinations.

It made the list due to the emergence of quaint boutique and hipster cafes.

In 2018, Ipoh was again put on the global map by Lonely Planet, as the city was named as one of the top three best coffee spots in Asia.

The popular travel authority listed Sin Yoon Loong Kopitiam and its signature Ipoh white coffee in its Global Coffee Tour book.

The former Ruby Cinema is now an eatery.

In the same year, New York Times also featured Ipoh in its publication, highlighting the boom of trendy cafes that turned the once sleepy town into the country’s hippest destination.

In 2014, Kathleen Peddicord, the founder of the Live and Invest Overseas publishing group, had published on money.usnews.com that Ipoh was one of the nine most affordable places to retire in the world.

Peddicord noted that one only needed a monthly budget of US$897 (RM2,900) to live in Ipoh.

She added that among the benefits of living in Ipoh were the first-world healthcare, modern infrastructures, clean and fresh air and relaxing lifestyle that can improve the quality of life and promote longevity. — By IVAN LOH