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Ipoh guide

A self-guided Ipoh heritage walk from D Eastern

This 2–3 hour loop covers 10 Old Town landmarks. Walk about 10 minutes from the hotel to Kong Heng Square, then visit Concubine Lane, Han Chin Pet Soo (book online first), Market Lane, the HSBC building and the Zacharevic murals. Continue to St Michael's Institution, the Birch clock tower, the Town Hall and the railway station.

By D Eastern front desk · Updated 2026-11-06

Ipoh grew rich on tin. Its Old Town is compact enough to see on foot in a morning, from the shophouse lanes to the colonial buildings around the Padang and the railway station. This route starts and ends at D Eastern Hotel. It has 10 stops, about an hour of actual walking, and plenty of time for coffee and photos, so allow 2–3 hours in total.

Walking times between stops are estimates based on straight-line distance, at about 80 m a minute. Real streets add a little, so treat them as a minimum. Go early. Old Town is busiest from about 10am to 5pm, especially at weekends, and many kopitiams close by mid-afternoon.

Before you go: book Han Chin Pet Soo

Han Chin Pet Soo is the one stop you can't just walk into. Visits are by appointment only. Book online at ipohworld.org up to 30 days ahead, and you get an instant confirmation email with a passcode. Bring it on your phone or printed. There is no fixed entry fee for the general public on scheduled tours, but visitors are asked to make a donation towards the building's upkeep. The booking calendar shows no tours on Mondays, with sessions at about 11am, 2pm and 3:30pm; on weekdays usually only the 11am session is open (checked Nov 2026). Fit the rest of the walk around your slot.

The route

1. Kong Heng Square (about 10 minutes from the hotel)

At the corner of Jalan Bandar Timah and Jalan Panglima is a group of largely 19th-century buildings. Architects and entrepreneurs turned them from a run-down site into cafés, a guesthouse and craft stalls. One of the first tenants, the Plan B café, moved into a former furniture warehouse (EdgeProp, 2018). Kedai Kopi Kong Heng, one of Ipoh's oldest surviving kopitiams, is on the same corner if you want breakfast first.

2. Concubine Lane, Lorong Panglima (about 2 minutes)

Tin tycoon Yau Tet Shin (born 1859) built shophouses along this lane after a fire destroyed 123 houses in 1892. Local tradition says he gave this lane and two others to his three wives to collect the rents. A less polite story says wealthy men kept their mistresses here. Today it is the busiest of the three lanes, lined with shops and cafés.

3. Han Chin Pet Soo, 3 Jalan Bijeh Timah (about 1 minute)

Leong Fee, a Hakka immigrant, founded this as a members-only club for Hakka tin miners in 1893. It was rebuilt as the present three-storey building in 1929. When membership dwindled, the club leased it to the heritage group ipohWorld, which opened it as a tin-mining museum in 2015. Look for Ernest Zacharevic's Evolution mural on the wall in front.

4. Market Lane, "Second Concubine Lane" (about 3 minutes)

This is the third of Yau Tet Shin's lanes. It is quieter than Concubine Lane, known for overhead red-and-white umbrellas and murals. Zacharevic's Trishaw mural is at one end. The first lane, "Wife Lane", is Lorong Hale nearby.

5. The HSBC building (about 3 minutes)

On the corner of Jalan Sultan Yussuf and Jalan Tun Sambanthan stands the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. It was completed in Neo-Renaissance style and opened on 31 October 1931, with the Sultan of Perak officiating. Its exterior is artificial granite and its banking hall Italian marble.

6. The "Art of OldTown" murals (a few minutes along Jalan Tun Sambanthan)

In 2014, OldTown White Coffee and Ipoh City Council commissioned the Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic to paint seven murals around Old Town. Old Uncle with Coffee Cup is on the wall of OldTown White Coffee's outlet on Jalan Tun Sambanthan, facing the Ipoh Padang. Paper Plane is high up nearby, so look skywards. Two of the seven (Kopi-O and Girl) have since been lost, according to iPackTravel (March 2026). Hummingbird sits in a fenced-off car park and may not last much longer. Old Uncle, Paper Plane, Evolution and Trishaw were still listed in 2026 guides.

7. St Michael's Institution (about 6 minutes)

Walk past the Padang to this school on Jalan S.P. Seenivasagam. It opened on 4 December 1912 with 37 pupils in a small bungalow. The long main building, designed by Brother Vernier Auguste, was blessed in May 1923. During the Japanese Occupation it served as a military hospital and as the Japanese government's Perak headquarters. It is a working school, so view it from outside.

8. Birch Memorial Clock Tower (about 7 minutes)

This clock tower was unveiled on 8 December 1909 in memory of James W. W. Birch, Perak's first British Resident. Four panels by Doulton of London trace humanity's progress, with figures including Confucius, Shakespeare, Newton and Darwin. It stands a short distance from the State Mosque (Masjid Sultan Idris Shah II).

9. Ipoh Town Hall (about 2 minutes)

Government Architect Arthur Benison Hubback designed this Neo-Classical building, completed in 1916 after wartime shortages delayed it. The front was the town hall. The rear held the main post office and telephone exchange.

10. Ipoh Railway Station (about 2 minutes)

Also by Hubback, the station was built between 1914 and 1917. It mixes Moorish Revival / Indo-Saracenic touches with Edwardian Baroque, and locals call it the "Taj Mahal of Ipoh". The building also housed the Majestic Hotel. The platforms were rebuilt for the electrified double track, completed in 2007.

Back to the hotel

The station is about 1.4 km from the hotel. Walk back through Old Town, about 15–20 minutes, or ask the front desk to help book a Grab.

Practical tips

  • Total time: about 1 hour of walking plus stops, so 2–3 hours. Allow extra time if you join a Han Chin Pet Soo tour.
  • Heat: carry water and a hat.
  • State Mosque: if you want to go inside, dress modestly, avoid prayer times (especially Friday midday) and ask at the mosque's management office in the compound first.
  • Shorter version: stops 1–4 take under an hour and are the closest to the hotel.

Sources

Ask the front desk on WhatsApp