REMINISCING the good old days had triggered 78-year-old Chan Kooi Zai’s memory of a simple and inexpensive lifestyle of Kampar in the fifties.
“A metal-built bicycle cost about RM40,” he said, adding that the two wheelers swarming through busy streets was a common scene in the good old days.
He said the town, which was bounded by forests and swamps then, had only two rows of pre-war shophouses.
The buildings still look the same today but Chan said things had changed a lot over the decades.
Old street: Shophouses along Jalan Gopeng are the earliest buildings that made up Kampar town. The fortunes of Kampar (translated to golden treasure in Cantonese) can be likened to that of a ride on a roller coaster.
Once a prosperous tin mining town, it plunged to its lowest ebb when the tin industry collapsed in the 1980’s
Its economy only began to pick up a decade ago - thanks to the setting up of Kolej Tunku Abdul Rahman (KTAR) and Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (Utar) which saw an influx of thousands of students.
Today, both institutions boast a total enrolment of more than 20,000.
The student population certainly has changed the spending habits and power in Kampar ; with some folks blaming them for pushing up the prices of goods and services.
But one thing for sure is the property prices in Bandar Baru Kampar (new town) where KTAR and Utar are located have skyrocketed in recent years.
Back in the days: A picture of the Rex Cinema which has already torn down (picture courtesy of www.ipohworld.org). Many investors outside Kampar who bought properties in the vicinity are laughing all the way to the bank.
“A three-storey link house is worth RM888,000 and you are already a millionaire when you have two units,” said a real estate agent, adding that most of the units were tenanted to undergraduates.
The area also saw the mushrooming of facilities like cafe, stationery shop, laundry and also a hypermarket to capture the young and growing market.
For the people’s convenience, an Immigration Department office will start operations in the new town soon.
Kampar MP Datuk Lee Chee Leong said the Kinta Selatan National Registration Department in old town would also be relocated to the new town (next to the new Immigration Department) for added convenience to the people.
The Kampar Hospital which is located on top of a hill in old town would also be relocated to the new town.
Construction for the new hospital, estimated to cost about RM300mil, will start next year, and it would take two years to complete.
Kampar old town, just a few kilometers away, is a stark contrast, with its small town charm still very much intact.
Resident Lee Pak Chong told MetroPerak that Jalan Idris was also known as the Cinema Street (Din Yeng Gai in Cantonese) because there were three cinemas along the road in the old days.
“People loved watching films in big groups. It was not merely for entertainment but also a bonding moment among friends,” recalled the 65-year-old Lee who is a retired construction worker.
He said a cinema ticket had cost about 65 cents in the 1960’s - double the price of a bowl of wanton noodles those days.
The cinemas, Lee said, began to close down one by one following the collapse of the tin industry.
While the Chinese community in Kampar mostly worked in the tin mines then, Ali Hassan Karam Din , 59, said it was livestock farming for the Sikh and Indian communities.
Ali Hassan, who works as a clerk in a driving school, said his father used to rear cattle near the Kampar train station and supplied them to buyers from Alor Setar.
“The most convenient way to deliver cattle those days was by train as we could not afford to pay for lorry services,” said Ali Hassan who speaks fluent Cantonese and Tamil.
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