Yong Peng

Yong Peng is a town in Batu Pahat District in the state of Johor, Malaysia, within Tanjung Sembrong Mukim, with an area of 1,911.6 hectares and an estimated population of 29,046. Its Chinese name means everlasting peace. In November 1847 four Chinese immigrants from Chaozhou led by Boo Koh Lak Loo, known as Ah Loh, paddled up the Bekok River to the place then called Sri Bertam, and the settlement was run under the kangchu river-headman system. During the Emergency a few thousand squatters from the jungle fringes were resettled in a New Village here, and the town is administered by the Yong Peng District Council, set up on 1 September 1979, which also covers Ayer Hitam and Tanjung Sembrong. About 60 percent of residents are Chinese, 32 percent Malay and 7 percent Indian.