Kek Lok Shi Temple, Penang
Farmosa Fort, MelakaUNESCO has announced the latest list of World Heritage, which include two historical city in Malaysia, Penang and Melaka http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/1519/.
Penang is an Island situated at Northwest of Peninsular Malaysia, the first Island found by Francis Light, a British East India Company to explore for opportunity in the far east. Penang then has transformed into a free trade island and as a stepping stone for British to expand their influence and empire to South East Asia. Since then, Penang has always been an important port for western to futher explore to the far east, but later when they found Singapore which is situated in a more strategic place, the British has chosen Singapore as Head Quarter to replace Penang.
Melaka has a even more longer history. Situated at Southwest of Peninsular Malaysia and being one of the most powerful empire once, Melaka empire has encompasses vast area of the Malaya peninsular, Singapore, Riau Islands and part of Sumatra. Melaka empire was invaded by Portuguese, follow by the Dutch and later British. Before World War II, Penang, Melaka and Singapore were centralised to become the Strait State control directly from London.
We are really proud that the two state has been elected as world heritage site. Its an honour to all Malaysian. Now the challenge is to keep it as it is and not trying to "develop" the site until it lost the status. The government, NGOs and public must all come together to preserve these area as this is not only a place for Malaysian, but a WORLD HERITAGE that all human must preserve it for our future generation.
One thing for sure, we would expect more tourist to visit these site in near future, so both state government of Penang and Melaka must work harder to keep these historical site in good shape. Keeping this heritage site means keeping the honour for all Malaysian.
1 comments:
Yes, it is a great honour for us, Malaysians to have two cities that have great historical influence to be listed in UNESCO as World Heritage sites. Sure a nice breather from the turmoil we are so used of hearing/reading nowadays.....
Anyway, it's hight time for our local government to do its very best to attract more tourists to these places. While earning foreign currency will be great for the economy, they must not forget that preservation is also; if not more important that just making money. Young generation needs to connect to our past for a better future.
MoTour needs to be more aggresive in helping these two states. Show and bring out the best of Penang and Melaka. Stop wasting funds in having senseless "theme park gizmo" like the Eye of Melaka. Instead focus on the tradition, architecture, food and local customs. I'm sure people will be more interested than just rides....
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