HISTORICAL SITES : BATU MAUNG FISHING VILLAGE, PENANG

This village owes its fame to Sam Poh Footprint Temple the beachfront shrine that is dedicated to Admiral Cheng Ho, the famous Chinese admiral who features prominently in the history of the Melaka Sultanate.

The jetty

Plankway pier at Batu Maung, Penang.

Batu Maung is where the deep sea fishing port is located. It is not surprising therefore that Batu Maung is famous for seafood. In the sixties and early seventies, there was a famous seafood restaurant here called Ocean Inn. Ocean Inn as a Penang version of Har Par Villa, with its cement statues of Chinese mythology.

By the eighties and nineties, Ocean Inn has been replaced by newer seafood establishments. There was one called "Beginning of the World", which used to be located in the middle of the sea, and accessible by a plankway. It has since moved inland to the Batu Maung village centre, near the crossroads.

Batu Maung is also famous for having a temple dedicated to Admiral Cheng Ho (Zhenghe). The Sam Poh Footprint Temple, which initially was just an altar built over a rock right at the shoreline, has since been developed into a proper temple. It enshrines what appears to be a giant footprint - the footprint of Sam Poh, the local name given to Cheng Ho.

In the hills above Batu Maung are war relics from the Second World War. These were built by the British who had expected the Japanese to invade from the sea, and had stationed the arms southwards. As it happened, the Japanese invaded from the north, ande the artileries were unused. Today the war relics are now part of the Penang War Museum.

The Malaysian Fisheries Research Institute occupies a piece of land in Batu Maung. This is where the Penang Aquarium is located. It showcases a small collection of marine life. Next door to it is the WorldFish Centre, a Unesco-funded research institute which operates in Batu Maung after moving from the Philippines in 2000.

A great part of Batu Maung consisted of mangrove swamp. In the recent decade, the mangrove had been cleared - to the chagrin of environmentalists, as it caused a loss of habitat for the wildlife such as the birds and monkeys. The land was reclaimed to form Phase 4 of the Bayan Lepas Industrial Zone.

As Batu Maung is located at the southernmost end of the Bayan Lepas Expressway, it has become a choice site for property development. Several new housing estates have sprouted here. Development of Batu Maung is expected to further accelerate now that it has been identified as the end-point of the second bridge to link Penang island to Batu Kawan on the mainland.