History
A family of Chinese traders who were trading between China and the Malay Peninsula established Kuala Terengganu as early as the 15th century. Soon after it was founded, the town grew into an important trading post between the two countries. However, after the Malacca Empire conquered the town, its influence as a leading port in the Southeast Asian region diminished as most of the traders preferred to stop at Melaka, which was the center of trade between China, India and Southeast Asia.
The oldest streets was called Kampung Cina (Chinatown), a settlement where buildings are hundreds of years old. After these very old buildings were threatened with demolition by the city the district was listed in the 1998 World Monuments Watch by the World Monuments Fund (WMF). The site was listed again in 2000 and 2002. In 1998, with funding from American Express, WMF helped Badan Warisan Malaysia (Heritage of Malaysia Trust) to develop a plan to improve the current shop structures. The organization prepared a conservation outline for a pilot project on No. 51/53 Jalan Bandar, and created a video to encourage the local community and others to take part in the preservation effort.
Read more about this topic: Kuala Terengganu
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“History takes time.... History makes memory.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“I believe that history has shape, order, and meaning; that exceptional men, as much as economic forces, produce change; and that passé abstractions like beauty, nobility, and greatness have a shifting but continuing validity.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)