Melaka and George Town

Melaka and George Town
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Melaka and George Town, historic cities of the Straits of Malacca, are renowned for their multicultural heritage. They are located at a strategic position for the 15th - 18th century trade between Europe and Asia. Their culture and townscapes further evolved after being colonized by the Portuguese, Dutch and the British.

Year Decision Comments
2008 Inscribed Reasons for inscription
2008Advisory Body overruledBy ICOMOS (later overruled by the Committee) for management issues

Reviews

Elisabeth Fransisca Situmorang (Indonesia):
Melaka historic centre is basically a very small area covering with many redish buildings in one part before crossing the bridge, and more 'historic - old' buildings on the other side of the bridge.

The combination of west vs east culture is very pronounce. And some holy places from different believes standing side by side tells us even more on how rich the combined culture is...
Date posted: November 2008
Nazlina Hussin (Malaysia):
My children and I celebrated Penang's inscription as a UNESCO heritage city by joining the street procession organized by the state.

It was part of a three day affair which left us exhausted but exhilarated.

For my young kids, the experience is unforgettable since it was not easy to get an opportunity like that again.

You can read more on my personal web site PenangHeritageCity.com
Date posted: November 2008
George TC Lee (Brisbane, Australia):
I'm glad to know that Georgetown have been listed in the Unesco World Heritage list, my hometown which I missed so much. I frequently shout praises for the myriad of cultures and colours found abundant in Malaysian cities, and in particular Penang, to my Australian mates. I look forward to coming back home for a holiday next year.
Date posted: October 2008
Frederik Dawson (Netherlands):
The first cultural world heritage site of Malaysia is the historic areas of two port cities in the famous straits of Malacca, Melaka and George Town, in my opinion, these two cities are the true examples of global cities influenced by almost every great maritime country in the history; Malay, Indian, Portuguese, Dutch, Chinese and English. I only visited George Town, the capital city of the State of Penang, in October 2008 as a day trip from Kuala Lumpur by plane. At first glance, Penang Island was very busy island with lots of traffic, high rise buildings which was a typical image of normal large Asian city, but in the historic quarter, the atmosphere was totally different.

The old area of George Town can easily be divided into two parts, the small colonial district and the very large shop houses area that include china town and little India districts. For the colonial area, there are some nice British colonial buildings, but to be honest, these buildings can not be considered to be outstanding especially if you compared with Singapore’s colonial area or other beautiful colonial building of French Hanoi or Thai-adopt colonial style in Bangkok. The real major draw card for George Town is the shop house area; the shop house buildings can be considered a unique style of architecture in Southern China and Southeast Asia with interesting mix of Portuguese and Chinese and using typical European and Malay arts as decorative motif. For me this is not my first time to encounter this mix and match building style, I have seen such buildings in other Asian cities, so to consider George Town as a unique city is totally impossible.

Interestingly that in ICOMOS document, Singapore and Phuket are used for comparative study since they are both important port cities in the Malacca Straits, and from my experience, the shop houses in those cities are much nicer, more colorful and in good shape than the buildings I saw in George Town. The fact that George Town is able to preserve its very large historic area quite intact making George Town to jump out the pages from others in this particular region. However, the old quarter of George Town can not be regarded as being a nice old city, restoration is urgently required and the traffic and sanitary standard need to be reorganized especially for the road and pavements in china town area. The harmonious of old city is also a big problem, there always have modern building that located in the middle of old shop houses row, I hardly find an area that is pure 100% of old buildings, and you will notice this problem easily when you watch the old city from observation deck of the KOMTAR building.

All in all, George Town is a good example of quite well preserve of bygone colonial era in Asia and need to be visited by all tourists to understand the result of cultural exchange via maritime trade. The real treasure of George Town is not the old town or its history, but it is the unity of different culture and colorful people that make this city a place to remember and do not try to forget tasting the famous Tam Bun Biscuit, a local delicious delicacy, before you say good bye to George Town.
Date posted: October 2008
Timothy Tye (Malaysia):
As a Council Member of the Penang Heritage Trust, I must congratulate my fellow Council Members whose tireless effort in pushing for WHS listing finally paid off.

It would be great if one more Straits of Malacca city is included in the World Heritage Site listing: Singapore. When the British established Penang, it was to Malacca's loss, as they took pains to reduce Dutch Malacca's importance. And then, when Penang was found to be too far north to be a strategic port, it was then its loss to Singapore's gain. The history of these three cities should therefore be considered together.

Timothy Tye
www.penang-traveltips.com
www.pht.org.my
Date posted: October 2008
kinkonkid (singapore):
With it - I sinceley hope that Penang will retain and maintain her cultural charm, and not to hollow out her city center like many of the cities around the region. Other than retaining the hardward, it must continue to retain her software - it must have the body and continue the cultural soul. The straits shop houses, the clan association, etc are uniquely to this region, and hope that it will not fall prey any longer to commercialism, like her once sister city down south.
Date posted: July 2008
Shaun Yap (Malaysia):
Having been a Penangite all my life, this is certainly great news to Penang and its community. To be listed in the Unesco list together with other great sites like Angkor Wat, Borobudor and the Historic City of Ayutthaya is simply a great recognition and deservedly so. Well, there's a lot more work to be done in preserving these heritage sites but let's rejoice the moment for this long-awaited award.

More on: http://mymountainadventures.blogspot.com
Date posted: July 2008
Abdul Halim (Alim) (USA):
As a Penanghite, I proud Georgetown and Malacca announced as UNESCO heritage Site in 2008. Currently I travel lot between Minneapolis, USA - Penang on business trip and occasionally travel for vacation. Penang always in my heart as I am spiritualism to the place calls Home and it always home.

I encourage and promote Penang to co-workers in US and friends all over the world to visit fantastic tourist spot. It is rich of culture and heritage, Penang also a northern hub for business for trade industrial zone and well known as ‘silicon valley’ of Malaysia.

Beside Penang, Malacca is my favorite place to visit too. Malacca remember me how great of Malay Kingdom that fell down to Portuguese, then Dutch and finally to British. It tells you the story line where the Malaysia begins.

Congratulations for George Town and Malacca.

Alim,
Minneapolis, MN USA
Date posted: July 2008
deena (malaysia):
penang - very nice place.
multi cultures, multi races.
beautiful architectures.
lovely food.
truly asian.
enjoy.
Date posted: July 2008
Shah (Malaysia):
I was born in Penang, and has been working in Malacca for the past 3 years.. i love both places, there is a lot of interesting places to go, or you can just sit and watch to understand your built environment..

Congratulations to Melaka and Georgetown for the inscribtion in the UNESCO World Heriatge List

Shah
melakageorgetownworldheritagesite.blogspot.com
Date posted: July 2008
YS Chee (Malaysia):
I'm born around this new World Heritage Site, GeorgeTown, Penang, Malaysia. This place is full our cultural sites, being Chinese, Indian or Malay. We have side by side Chinese & Malay place of worship and had live peacefully for ages. There are historical stroll or trails which is helpful and well plan for vistors. I'm not ashame to let you know that even though we are born around the site there are plenty of places still not explore my me. I love to take photos around this hitorical & cultural site and had being doing it most weekend, just to show you how much to see inj GeogeTown ( we called it Old GeorgeTown )
Date posted: July 2008


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