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     --- WING LOOK
 

Wing Look, for more than 70 years the after school rendezvous for boys and girls, is no more thanks to the lifting of rent control. Which means no more Wing Look ice cream and cakes.  But it was more than ice cream and cakes.  In the evenings, Wing Lock, a class above the coffee shop, offered western food cooked in the traditional Hainanese style like chicken chop, chicken pie, steak and lamb. . Towards the end of its life the restaurant achieved a new reputation as one of the very rare places where one could get genuine spring roll (ch'oon piah) and real Hainanese mee. The building is the only one in Penang with a unique window system of screens which could be lifted or lowered, depending on the degree of privacy the diner desired. Its swing doors kept swinging till the end.
 

     --- LOKE THYE KEE
 

Loke Thye Kee which boasts proudly on the wall that it is The Oldest Restaurant in Penang is also no more.  The building, with its unique balcony overlooking Burma Road, attracted customers from far and wide, drawn to its first class inchi kabin, curry kapitan and  ch'oon piah (spring rolls), the best that Penangised Hainanese cuisine had to offer. In recent times cooking standards fell but tourists made up for the customer decline. The restaurant was also popular with those who wished to view the traditional chingay procession on Chap Goh Meh from a high perch
 

FOOTPRINT

The new eastern coastal road has put the once far away Batu Maung within fast and easy reach of George Town;  result is increased interest in the Admiral Cheng Ho footprint, said to have been made when he stepped ashore in the 15th century. The seaside village claims to be 1000 years old. In 1995 a temple was built on the site giving the footprint an enhanced status and a decent roof.  Believers seem to be on the increase despite the rather large size of the footprint

The attractive new road, with Pulau Jerejak a close neighbour, if cultivated with care may well emerge to be one of the island's popular picnic and recreational centres 
 

 STILL HOPE

All is not lost. Penang may even have two cities. A committee has been set up headed by the former Municipal president Dr Teng Hock Nam to look into the possibility of having two cities on the island and the mainland
 

AIRPORT

The single arrival\departure hall era at the Penang airport is ending. It is reported that in April a separate arrival hall will be ready for use by 2.5 million users, cf 2.4 m last year. It was always a puzzle why Northrop originally made two roads to lead into the building, the lower one of which was never used. 
 

JELUTONG EXPRESSWAY

Municipal Councillor and State MCA public complaints bureau chief Ooi Chuan Aik wants the project speeded up to avoid traffic jams
 

LONG TERM TOURISTS

Although some American and British tourists have been known to live in Penang for as long as 6 months when the winter cold compels them to seek the warmer weather here, there has been  until now no organised campaign to encourage foreigners to make Penang their second home. Now things have changed. The ministry has noticed that the Japanese visitors now at 180,000 are second only to the British. Government hopes senior citizens among them will spend 6 months to a year on the island. 

Meanwhile the chief minister of Malacca proposed that the state should work closely with Penang to get both states recognised as Heritage Destinations by the UN Social Economic and Culture Organisation

In 1998 3.2 millions visited, of whom 16% were British.  In 1999 the figure rose to 3.52 million tourists  (cf Sarawak with 300,000 and Sabah with 200,000) 
 

INDUSTRY

Penang's industry, mainly electronics based,  is looking up with investments totalling RM262.51 millions in 1999, up from the dismal RM26.84 the year before. Among the foreigners the United States leads with investment in 3 pieces of industrial land while Japan and Taiwan follow with one each. 
 

CONSULTATIVE COUNCIL

There is a proposal to set up a Local Government Consultative Council which will be aimed at developing a framework for good governance for local authorities Members it is said will be drawn from non government organisations (NGO's) professional bodies and prominent persons
 

HEART CENTRE

The chief minister hopes that four hospitals will work to make Penang a top cardiology centre. Penang has attracted patients from Singapore Thailand and Indonesia, he points out