The reopening of Malaysia’s borders on April 1 after two years of travel curbs aimed at preventing the spread of Covid-19 could see Taiping claim a place on the tourist map. The second biggest town in Perak state, and its capital before 1937, Taiping is an hour’s drive south of Penang island but gets only a fraction of its visitors, despite having many historical and natural attractions. In March 2019, at the International Tourismus-Börse travel trade show in Berlin, in Germany, Taiping was declared the third most sustainable city in the world, behind Ljubljana, in Slovenia, and Vancouver, Canada. But it was unable to capitalise on the honour because, a year later, Covid-19 shattered the dreams and expectations of Taiping’s business owners. Taiping prospered under British colonial rule thanks to its booming tin industry. Its name means “everlasting peace” – a tribute to the end of brutal conflict between immigrant Chinese clans in the early 1870s. The town was an important colonial administrative centre and boasts many firsts, including British Malaya’s first prison, lake gardens and commercial railway – to Port Weld (now Kuala Sepetang) – which opened in 1885 to transport tin 16km (10 miles) to the mangrove-draped coast. Nevertheless, it is a “second” that is putting the town on the map. Maxwell Hill (Bukit Larut in Malay), which looms above Taiping’s lake gardens like a giant viridian fan, became British Malaya’s second hill station in 1884, following the establishment of Penang Hill in 1787. A Hong Kong nostalgia tour: 10 of the best attractions city has lost Visit Maxwell Hill today and three new winding hiking trails climb through lush rainforest to a mist-shrouded world of abandoned colonial bungalows. Previously, the only access to the upper ridge of the 1,250m-high (4,100ft) Maxwell Hill had been a narrow, 12km-long, colonial-era road that was closed in 2019 pending repairs. The new routes owe their existence to the Malaysia Mountain Trail Festival (MMTF), which, since 2015, has been running races up the hill named after colonial administrator George Maxwell. “Initially I was just focused on making the race, but then I realised that Taiping does not have any permanent trekking trail like those on Hong Kong’s outlying islands or Singapore’s Bukit Timah,” MMTF president Ewegene Tan says. The new trails offer jungle hikes of between five and 10 hours that pass waterfalls and pools. Camping is allowed at designated areas, and three of eight old British-style timber bungalows at the top provide rough-and-ready accommodation. The trails became fully operational after MMTF’s latest race, in December 2021, which also served a practical purpose. “The topsoil in many Malaysian environments is always very loose and it makes it hard to create permanent trails,” Tan explains. “But when you have 2,000 to 4,000 people running over the same spot, the loose soil finally disperses, and you’ll get a proper track.” That was especially true of the trail formed from the main racecourse, which climbs for 8km through jungle to the Box – also known as Sri Kayangan – the holiday home of the Sultan of Perak since Malaysian independence in 1957. Attempting the trail, which passes through dense jungle and over various rock formations, I rest on an outcrop at 350m, watching the sloshing Ranting waterfall. Later, fighting off leeches, I emerge drenched in sweat, rain and a little blood, in front of the mist-shrouded Box. Half mustard-yellow wood, half exposed bricks, with tall, white, wood-framed windows, the bungalow sits in the middle of an overgrown lawn, permanently closed to the public. Flat pathways flanked by Jurassic-like ferns pass colonial buildings that, because of a dearth of tourism amid the pandemic, have long stood empty. The three buildings awaiting hikers and runners include the Federal Bungalow (also known as Angkasa), which has two sets of quarters connected by a covered passageway, and Rumah Treacher (Tempinis), an ash-white timber structure with a black pitched roof and surrounded by a green lawn. Both are managed by the local council. At 1,260m is the Nest, which has just reopened under the management of the MMTF events team. Built for the use of Scottish businessman John Fraser in 1887, it’s a gracious white timber house with a pitched roof overhanging a veranda. None of the eight colonial bungalows – others opened as basic rest-houses pre-pandemic – has been significantly restored. “We think it’s a waste but we also believe that the more people that go up the hill, the more buildings will be revived to host them,” Tan says. “Local people will be more willing to take their chances and turn those dishevelled heritage buildings into proper holiday homes.” The second of MMTF’s routes is a 10km trail that starts from the Burmese Pool – a forest park with a swimming hole set near the entrance to Maxwell Hill and the beginning of the old road – and climbs Bukit Larut to its 1,360m peak. A telecommunications tower stands at the top, at the end of the road. At 14km, the third trail is the longest. It also leaves the foothills near the Burmese Pool but reaches the telecommunications tower via Taman Suria, a forest-fringed area that shelters a clear, swimmable pond and waterfall. The trail then reaches the Box, criss-crossing the side of the mountain until looping back to the first trail. Visitors wanting to climb Maxwell Hill need a hiking permit (around 15 Malaysian ringgit, about US$4) and must engage a guide, who is responsible for, among other things, keeping hikers on the trails. “Maxwell Hill is a permanent virgin forest reserve, and as such nobody is allowed to wander off the trails and [past] their markers, which we placed between one and three metres from each other,” Tan says. He is replicating Taiping’s new infrastructure in the Endau-Rompin National Park in Pahang state, and also promoting the model elsewhere in the country, such as on Tioman Island off the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia.