Hidden treasures up high

Impressive attraction: The newly opened Penang Hill Gallery @ Edgecliff is an old state-owned bungalow that has now been converted into a tourist attraction.

GEORGE TOWN: It was a lesson in nature and heritage, even for someone who has known Penang Hill all his life.

Bunyamin Mohamed Rafi was surprised to learn that Penang Hill is home to an exotic variety of wildlife.

He had just found out that species like Sunda pangolins, black giant squirrels, Sunda colugo flying lemurs and the Asian leopard cat lived on the hill.

“I am a Penangite who hikes up the hill often, but I have never come across them,” said Bunyamin, 27.

“They must be deep inside the forest, but knowing that we have them makes me feel proud,” said the quality control executive when met on Penang Hill here.

His new knowledge came from the Penang Hill Gallery @ Edgecliff, which opened earlier this month, captivating both locals and foreign visitors.

The gallery on top of the hill is an old state-owned bungalow that has now been converted into an impressive tourist attraction.

Bunyamin said the gallery gave him an insight into the flora and fauna, wildlife and history of the hill.

“The hill was used to signal those below if ships were coming to attack us; that is something I did not know,” he said of the hill once known as Signal Hill or Flagstaff Hill.

Visitors touring the gallery.

Engineer Sam Chow, 29, who brought his two children, was just as surprised.

“I did not know we have giant squirrels and a leopard cat. That is news to me. My kids are excited too,” he said.

Singaporean accountant Ann Tan, who was on her first trip to the hill, found the gallery “a breath of fresh air.”

“I visit Penang every year as my father is from here, but I never managed to come up here till now,” she said.

Tan, 48, was surprised to learn that different trains were used before the current funicular train.

“It is nice to read up about the hill’s history here, although I am not really a history buff,” said Tan, who was at the gallery with her husband and cousins.

Two visitors from Johor, Mohd Amin, 35, and his wife Junie, 30, were just as impressed.

“The atmosphere here is perfect for us to recharge our batteries. And this gallery has so much history on show,” he said.

Accounts clerk Conie Ong, 62, who was on the hill with her friends, raved about the miniature trains, adding that she had wanted to visit the gallery as it looked beautiful.

The gallery, housed in the converted art deco-styled bungalow, is divided into five sections – time tunnel, biodiversity, heritage, funicular railway and culture.