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Taiping Lake Garden(太平湖) is located within the Taiping town centre, at the foot of Maxwell Hill or Bukit Larut. Taiping Zoo is located within the Taiping Lake Garden.
It is the first public garden established by British Malaya (under Federated Malay State) in 1880. It was formerly a mining pool. The abandoned tin mine was donated by Chung Thye Pin, the son of Chung Keng Kwee. It was Colonel Robert Sandilands Frowds Walker who first mooted the idea of establishing a public garden in Taiping, he was the Perak Police Chief(taking over from Paul Swinburne in 1879). He devoted his full effort to develop the garden , with the help of his police man in their free time. Colonel Walker is indeed the founder of the Taiping Lake Garden. It was later further developed by Charles Compton Reade(1884-1933), who is also responsible for planning Kuala Lumpur garden town.
The Lake Garden is with area of 222 acres(62 hectares), is the biggest urban park land in Malaysia.There are lake, parks, and circular road( Jalan Pekeliling) where the old rain trees were planted along the road, which provided natural shading for the visitors. There are about 10 man made ponds and lakes at the Lake Garden.
Alamanda Pond, planted with waterlilies
The Pavilion Bridge
Yes, I love those huge trees around Lake Garden too. Everytime I am in Taiping I have a short stroll around there. It's actually not much changed, if I compare some old photos I have to what it looks like today.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to see photos of Taiping in the Merdeka days, please visit:
http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/taiping-1957.html
and
http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/taiping-photos.html
These photos were made by English soldiers who were serving in Taiping in the late 1960's.