Ipoh, city, Peninsular (West) Malaysia, on the Kinta River. Surrounded by steep hills, except to the south, it lies on a flat alluvial plain in the Kinta Valley. The name comes from a local tree, whose poisonous resin was once used by Aboriginals for hunting. The modern city dates from the 1890s, when British tin-mining companies transferred operations from around Taiping to the rich Kinta ores. Immigrant Chinese were brought in to work the tin deposits, and their descendants now operate the open-pit mines and dominate the city.
The countryside around Ipoh is pocked with large sandpits from which the ore is extracted, either by dredging or by washing with high-pressure hoses. Beneath the Kinta gravels is a limestone structure riddled by solution; north and south of the city limestone rocks rise through the alluvium with gigantic caves that are used as Chinese temples. In addition to tin, rubber from foothill plantations is marketed.
The Chenderoh Dam on the nearby Perak River, together with diesel generators, supplies electricity for the Tasek Industrial Estates (more than 40 factories). Ipoh has a spacious rectangular layout, and in the suburbs are imposing residences of wealthy mineowners. As the country’s mining capital, Ipoh is the most important station on the Kuala Lumpur–Butterworth railway and the focus of highways across the valley. A small airstrip links the area with other major west coast cities. Ungku Omar Polytechnical Institute (1969) is located in the city. Pop. (2000 prelim.) city, 566,211.