The name Ipoh originated from a local tree, pohon epu or now more commonly known as pokok ipoh. This particular plant is used for the extraction of poisonous tree sap. The extract is used by the Orang Asli (indigenous people) in their blowdarts.

Ipoh is also known as san seng which means “hill city” in the Cantonese dialect. Ipoh is also known among local Chinese as “Pa-loh” (from historic but now seldom used term 壩羅) -referring to the gigantic mining pump used for early tin ore extraction. Among old nicknames for Ipoh are “City of Millionaires” and “the Town that Tin built”; referring to the vast fortunes made during the boom of the tin mining and rubber industries.

History

Ipoh city came into existence in the 1890s as a village on the banks of the Kinta River. It was less prominent at that time as compared to the early mining town of Gopeng, 20 km south of Ipoh. In 1893 Sir Frank Swettenham put forth the founding of Ipoh Sanitary Board which led to systematic planning of Ipoh, which was still seen today.

However, from the turn of the 20th century when more British tin-mining companies were set up in the city, Ipoh gained prominence. Influential institutions such as The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China Limited opened a significant office in Ipoh in 1902. It provided credit to the Straits Trading Company and later the Eastern Smelting Company. More colonial era firms such as Botly and Co., A.H Whittaker & Co., Chartered Accounts, Evatt & Co., and Estate Visiting Agents Milne & Stevens started to set up offices in the booming town.

Its geographic location in the rich tin-bearing valley of the Kinta River made it a natural centre of growth. It grew rapidly as a mining town, especially in the 1920s and 1930s. A local Hakka miner, millionaire Yau Tet-Shin started developing a large tract of the city in the early 1930s, today known as the New Town section of the city — the area which roughly delineated from the eastern bank of Kinta River to Greentown.

In the 1950s, Ipoh was characterised by the proliferation of large numbers of cinema halls, amusement parks, cabarets and night life which was unrivalled in peninsular^{[citation needed]}. Two of the largest entertainment groups then Cathay Organisation and Shaw Brothers Company had set up chains of cinemas. Ipoh was also one of the four original towns served by Malayan Airways - the other being Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

With the collapse of tin prices and the closure of the tin mines in the late 1970s, Ipoh’s growth had stagnated and resulted in the migration of many young talents to other parts of Malaysia (particularly metropolitan areas such as Kuala Lumpur) and Singapore. Ipoh has since been known colloquially as a “dead” city and earned a reputation as a good location for retirement. Various efforts have been made to redevelop Ipoh into a modern town (see below). The city is expanding all the time as there are new developments in the suburbs.

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