The House of Yeap Chor Ee
Summary:
4.6
No 4 Penang Street, Penang Island, Pinang / Penang 10200
Opening Hour
Monday-Friday 10am-6pm
Closed on Saturdays and Sundays
The House of Yeap Chor Ee was originally the home of this Grand Old Man, now is being turned into a museum and managed by his descendants. Apart from showcasing the collection of delicate antiques, this museum also tells the courtesy, generosity, humility and integrety of Yeap’s life as well as the tough lives that the immigrants were leading in audio form.
Arriving in Penang at a mere age of 17 from China in the 1890s, virtually penniless but with relentless energy and business sense, Yeap Chor Ee worked his way up and became Penang’s richest man of his time. Besides dominating the business world, he was also a great philanthropist when he donated a big amount of his savings to help the poor, especially in education.
When you reach the House of Yeap Chor Ee, doorbell has to be rang to call the worker to open the door.
For the whole journey when you visits the House of Yeap Chor Ee, there is nobody guiding you except for the audio guide. There are numbers shown in each gallery and you need to press the corresponding number in audio guide to listen to the explanation.
We starts our visiting from the highest (3rd) floor where you can find various antique collections. The most eye-catching one is the Golden Sleeping Buddha. You can find quite a number of well-maintained cheongsams which belonged to Yeap Chor Ee’s wifes.
Then moving down to the gallery showcasing Yeap Chor Ee’s chronological life in Penang. He was an immigrant from Nam Aun, China. At the age 16 in 1885, he immigrated to Penang and started his career as a barber. After working for 5 years, he started a small provision shop, Chop Ban Hin Lee where he sold goods on consignment from a British importing house before Java’s Sugar King. In 1890s, Yeap Chor Ee ventured into banking sector when he set up Ban Hin Lee Bank, which was the predecessor of CIMB Bank. In his later years, Chor Ee turned to philanthropy with a particular interest in education. DISTED colleges and Wawasan Open University are some of the institution supported by Yeap’s family. He also established several charitable trusts just before his death in 1952 when his age was 82.
If you wanted to know more about China immigrants and Yeap’s family history, do come here. And if you like antiques, you should come here as the artefacts showcasing here are pretty nice.
The entrance fee is RM12, inclusive of the audio guide. Opening hours is from Monday to Friday, 10am to 6pm. If you are driving, please do park your car at the parking space beside Ford Convallis as you nearly can’t find any parking at the roadside unless you are lucky enough.
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- A businessman and philantropist who built the empire of wealth with his own hands.
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- One of Penang’s most prominent mansions. There isn’t much changes to the house’s exterior until now.
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- Magnificent interior. The ground floor is where the visitor center and Sire Restaurant is located.
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- The furniture is well preserved and most of them is more than 100 years old.
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- Just a very small part of antique collection in the building.
As featured in Best of Penang Travel in George Town Area
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There is no real tour guide provided but we are given an audio device that we learn about interesting facts about Yeap Chor Ee and early days in Penang. You can select either Chinese or English to play the audio. The museum allows you to take pictures.