TAIPING, Feb 20 ― Taiping is a special town, owing its uniqueness to the fact that it was an important tin mining town in Perak and the state capital, before being replaced by Ipoh in 1937.

However, Taiping is also home to what is believed to be the oldest coffee mill in the country, the An Tong.

The coffee mill in Assam Kumbang was started in 1933 by Tiah Ee Mooi and still operates to this day using the same wood roasting method.

An Tong was formerly a horse carriage workshop before Tiah, a migrant from Fuzhou in China’s Fujian province, bought the place.

It is presently run by Thian Boon Chung, 37, the grandson of Tiah.

Thian, a civil engineer by training, gave up his profession to take over from his father in 2005.

“We take pride in the fact that our coffee is still produced the same way, using local beans,” he told The Malay Mail.

“In recent years, we also use imported coffee beans, including Arabica beans from Brazil and luwak or civet coffee from Indonesia.

“Our roasted coffee are supplied to coffee shops in Taiping, Ipoh and the Klang Valley.”

The coffee mill is open to visitors, with no entry fee, for them to experience the coffee roasting process.

Thian inherited another treasure from his grandfather, a small bungalow where Dr Sun Yat Sen, the first president and founding father of the Republic of China, had  once stayed with his second wife Chen Cuifen.

Dr Sun had travelled here to launch the fund-raising campaigns for uprising movements against the Qing dynasty.

“My grandfather bought it in the late 30s when Dr Sun’s wife moved back to China after staying there for 17 years,” said Thian.

He hopes to turn the bungalow into a museum, to commemorate the long history of friendship between the Chinese migrants here and Dr Sun.

The bungalow presently serves as an office for Thian.

“We are now in the process of moving the office to another place,” he said.

“Hopefully it can be done as soon as possible.”