Ayer Tawar
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Ayer Tawar (Chinese: 爱大华; Pinyin: Àidàhuá) is a small town of 30,000 people in the district of Manjung, state of Perak, Malaysia. Ayer Tawar literally means "fresh water" in the Malay language. Less well-known than its immediate and larger neighbour Sitiawan, which is just 12 kilometres away, it is also sometimes referred to as simply Sitiawan to outsiders not familiar with the place.
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[edit] Geography and layout
Ayer Tawar is about 60 km west of the state capital, Ipoh, and about 22km from Lumut, where the largest Malaysian naval base is situated. The only means of getting to the town is by road from the north via Penang to Taiping to Pantai Remis, and from the south via Ipoh or the coastal road from Telok Intan to Sitiawan.
Surrounding Ayer Tawar is a number of villages such as Changkat Kruing, Kampong Rajah Hitam, Kampong Merbau, Kampong Jering, Kampong Ayer Tawar, Api Kong and the largest among all, Ayer Tawar New Village (not to be confused with the New Town section of Ayer Tawar itself).
The town was originally demarcated into two sections known as Old Town and New Town, by Ayer Tawar River. Ironically, buildings in the Old Town area are much newer than those in the New Town area due to redevelopment after repeated fires, which gutted the thatch-roofed wooden shophouses. Today, development is going on in the New Town along the row of shophouses next to Jalan Sekolah, the road leading to the Min Te Chinese Primary School, which is the oldest school of the town.
Some notable landmarks in Ayer Tawar include: the Chinese Methodist Church, Taoist Nine Emperor Gods Temple, a Hindu Temple, the Buddhist Guang Ji Gong Temple, and the Kutien Association Building. The surrounding villages are also quite picturesque (having won "most beautiful village of the year" titles),[citation needed] consisting of modern, double-storey bungalows and surrounded by well-maintained gardens, with the roads lined by tropical trees and flowers.[citation needed]
[edit] Economy
Like many other rural townships, Ayer Tawar is economically dependent on its agro-based industries. The town is surrounded by plantations and small holdings of commercial crops, such as oil palms, rubber trees, cocoa, coconut trees and, recently, fruit plants such as durian and mango.
From 1910 to 1970, rubber was the sole commercial crop cultivated by the farmers and the British plantation owners. The economic wellbeing of the population invariably fluctuated in tandem with the prices of rubber. In the early 1970s, the town suffered a devastating economic slump due to prolonged low rubber prices. This led to 3 significant developments: the emigration of the younger populace to major cities such as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Penang and even the United Kingdom, to seek a better living; the migration of many farming families to new settlements such as Sri Jaya in Pahang; and lastly the diversification of cultivation to include other commercial crops, the most important of which is the planting of oil palms. The latter now dominates land use in the vicinity.
[edit] Demographics
Ethnic Chinese, mostly of the Fuzhou dialect group comprise the majority of Ayer Tawar's population. Most of them work in rubber estates and oil palm plantations, or participate in the retail industry. Outlying villages are populated by Malay paddy and fruit farmers. Ayer Tawar currently faces a problem of emigration of its younger residents to other bigger towns and cities.
[edit] Schools
There are 3 secondary schools and more than 10 primary schools consisting of 1 Tamil primary school, 2 National (Malay) and 7 Chinese. The secondary schools are non-communal. However, Chinese students are the majority in two of the three, due to the demography of the town. About 6 kilometers away, there is the Nan Hua Chinese Independent Secondary School.
[edit] Cuisine
Ayer Tawar is famous for an onion biscuit called Kong piang (Chinese: 光饼; Pinyin: Guāngbǐng).
