Hill of the Chinese (Bukit China)

According to the Malay Annals, Tun Parapati Puti was sent by Mansur Shah, the Sultan of Malacca in the middle of the 15th century (1459-88), as an ambassador to the Court of Peking. He came back bringing with him Princess Hang Li Po, the Ming Emperor's daughter, who was given as a wife to the Sultan. She was accompanied by 500 handmaids and all were converted to Islam and given as a residence the hill without the town. Hence its name of Bukit China. The Chinese dug a well at the foot of the hill which is the actual Perigi Raja or Sultan's Well.

Some of the oldest Chinese relics in Malaysia are to be found on the hill, which, together with Bukit Gedung and Bukit Tempurung, forms one of the largest Chinese burial grounds outside China. This burial ground covers an area of more than 106 acres which was donated by Li Kup, alias Li Wei King, the founder of the Cheng Hoon TengTemple, to the Malacca Chinese in the middle of the 17th century. The ground contained the graves of some of the early Chinese notables in Malacca such as Lip Kap who died in 1688, Tay Kup who died in 1677 and Chan Kup and his wife. These graves are still intact and well preserved.