A Whole New World for Penangites
The New World Amusement Park in Penang will be getting a face-lift after being deserted and forgotten for years.
For those of you not familiar with the New World Amusement Park, here is a bit of historical facts I managed to gather. More fondly known to the older generations as ‘Sin Sei Kai’ in Hokkien or ‘San Sai Kai’ in Cantonese. Located near the Swatow Lane area, the New World Amusement Park was built sometime during the era of the Japanese occupation. It used to have 2 cinemas, children’s park with merry-go-rounds, small game outlets and so on. This place was one of the popular amusement spots for folks of the yesteryears. It lost its glitters some time in the early 1970s and the place was abandoned with grass growing all over.
Recently, there’s a project initiated to build a food court/hawker center on the area of the old New World Amusement Park. All the current hawkers along Swatow Lane are expected to move into the hawker center when the building is ready.
The two-hectare complex is being redeveloped at a cost of RM17 million into an all-in-one location for food and entertainment. It comprises of a 28-stalls hawker center, a covered performance stage and several blocks of shop houses.
I think this new place will be a new popular hawker center among the young generations as well as tourists. It will also bring back some fond memories of yesteryears for the older generations who used to hang out there some long time ago.
