This post has been set to auto-publish because I have gone home for my 10-day Chinese New Year holidays!

This week’s Photo Hunt theme is NARROW, and I’d like to take this opportunity to talk about my Mum’s village, Sungai Lembing. Sungai Lembing is a tin mining town some 42 km northwest of Kuantan in the state of Pahang, Malaysia.

A narrow lane in Sungai Lembing by Pelf Nyok.

Until the 1970s, Sungai Lembing was a major producer of underground tin. Sungai Lembing town developed in the 1880′s when the British set up the tin mining industry, although the history of mining in this area extends much further back. From 1891, the Pahang Consolidated Company Limited (PCCL), which was under British control, had a 77-year lease to mine the area. PCCL managed the mine from 1906 until its liquidation in 1986 when world tin prices collapsed. The pit mines were closed in 1986 due to high operational costs and low yields, but during their heyday they were among the largest and deepest in the world. The total tunnel length is 322 km, with a depth of between 610 m and 700 m.

Faded signboard which says “National Mining Workers Union Of Peninsular Malaysia” by Pelf Nyok.

And it was during the British control that Sungai Lembing flourished into a rich town, but after PCCL was closed, the town slowly turned into a sleepy hollow. People no longer remember what Sungai Lembing was once very famous for. People no longer visit the sleepy town because it doesn’t offer them anything anymore.