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HISTORIC<br />
AN ND PERKING<br />
TRADITIONAL TIO<br />
GEORGE RGE PENANG<br />
TOWN<br />
Heritage status for George<br />
Town has meant an infl ux<br />
of tourists hungry for<br />
history and tradition. And,<br />
inevitably, there are enterprising<br />
businessmen keen to get a slice<br />
of the action. Dilapidated old<br />
buildings are now much sought<br />
after, snapped up by the block for<br />
conversion and restoration.<br />
Many boutique hotels have<br />
sprung up in and around George<br />
Town in recent years. Penang’s<br />
international hotelier Christopher<br />
Ong has invested in several<br />
properties. “Heritage status for<br />
George Town means that you’re not<br />
As the George Town Festival<br />
returns for a month, it’s the<br />
ideal time to check into a<br />
historic boutique hotel<br />
WORDS HELEN ONG<br />
PHOTOGRAPHY STEPHEN GOH<br />
suddenly going to fi nd a massive structure<br />
right next to the building you just bought,”<br />
he says, referring to the stringent heritage<br />
conservation restrictions aimed to protect the<br />
inner city.<br />
Immerse yourself in a truly local<br />
atmosphere by checking into one of these<br />
painstakingly renovated hotels, from where<br />
you’ll be able to explore the surrounding<br />
historical sites of old George Town, which<br />
these days continues to buzz even after<br />
nightfall. The most well known, and one<br />
of the fi rst, must be the award-winning<br />
Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, aka The Blue<br />
Mansion, in Leith Street, recently named<br />
one of the world’s Top 10 Greatest Mansions<br />
and Grand Houses by Lonely Planet– one<br />
HERITAGE //<br />
045
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