康乔

爱大华出现过一位很出名的歌手。他就是康乔，一个家家户晓的人物。我不知现在的年轻人会不会认识这位歌手。但是，三十岁以上的人都知道这位仁兄。因为在马来西亚，他可是轰动一时的歌手。

中学时，每年的神庙庆典，他都会出现在舞台上娱乐台下的我们。我不是他的歌迷，但是他的老家就在我的学校对面。每天上学及放学都会从他家经过。如果他有回老家的话，我们就会很意外的看到他。感觉跟他是那么的熟悉 (可能大家都是福州人)，但是彼此都不认识。

而让我印象深刻的是他出过福州专辑。一个全都是福州歌的专辑。唯一一位发扬福州歌的歌手。

无意间看到了这个部落格"爱康乔"。如果你想怀念一下这位歌手，请参观他的部落格。

Introduction

Ayer Tawar (Chinese: 爱大华; Pinyin: Àidàhuá) is a small town of 30,000 people in the district of Manjung, state of Perak, Malaysia. Ayer Tawar literally means "fresh water" in　the Malay language but most of the younger generations prefer to name it "Tasteless Water" since the word "Tawar" in Malay means tasteless. It is less well-known than its immediate and larger neighbour Sitiawan, which is just 12 kilometres away, it is also sometimes referred to as simply Sitiawan to outsiders not familiar with the place.

Geography and layout
Ayer Tawar is about 60 km west of the state capital, Ipoh, and about 22km from Lumut, where the largest Malaysian naval base is situated. The only means of getting to the town is by road from the north via Penang to Taiping to Pantai Remis, and from the south via Ipoh or the coastal road from Telok Intan to Sitiawan.

Surrounding Ayer Tawar are a number of villages such as Changkat Kruing, Kampong Raja Hitam, Kampong Merbau, Kampong Jering, Kampong Ayer Tawar,Kampung Columbia, Api Kong and the largest among all, Ayer Tawar New Village (not to be confused with the New Town section of Ayer Tawar itself).

The town was originally divided into two sections known as Old Town and New Town by the Ayer Tawar River. Ironically, buildings in the Old Town area are much newer than those in the New Town area due to redevelopment after repeated fires, which gutted the thatch-roofed wooden shophouses. Today, development is going on in the New Town along the row of shophouses next to Jalan Sekolah, the road leading to the Min Te Chinese Primary School, which is the oldest school of the town.

Besides that, there are a few primary school nearby. For example Ayer Tawar Tamil Primary School, Pei Min Primary School in Kampong Raja Hitam, Merbau Primary School in Kampong Merbau.

Some notable landmarks in Ayer Tawar include: the Chinese Methodist Church, Taoist Nine Emperor Gods Temple, a Hindu Krishna Temple, the Buddhist Guang Ji Gong Temple, and the Kutien Association Building. The surrounding villages are also quite picturesque (having won "most beautiful village of the year" titles),[citation needed] consisting of modern, double-storey bungalows and surrounded by well-maintained gardens, with the roads lined by tropical trees and flowers.

Economy
Like many other rural townships, Ayer Tawar is economically dependent on its agro-based industries. The town is surrounded by plantations and small holdings of commercial crops, such as oil palms, rubber trees, cocoa, coconut trees and, recently, fruit plants such as durian and mango.

From 1910 to 1970, rubber was the sole commercial crop cultivated by the farmers and the British plantation owners. The economic wellbeing of the population invariably fluctuated in tandem with the prices of rubber. In the early 1970s, the town suffered a devastating economic slump due to prolonged low rubber prices. This led to 3 significant developments: the emigration of the younger populace to major cities such as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Penang and even the United Kingdom, to seek a better living; the migration of many farming families to new settlements such as Sri Jaya in Pahang; and lastly the diversification of cultivation to include other commercial crops, the most important of which is the planting of oil palms. The latter now dominates land use in the vicinity.

Demographics
Ethnic Chinese, mostly of the Fuzhou dialect group comprise the majority of Ayer Tawar's population. Most of them work in rubber estates and oil palm plantations, or participate in the retail industry. Outlying villages are populated by Malay paddy and fruit farmers. Ayer Tawar currently faces a problem of emigration of its younger residents to other bigger towns and cities.

School
There are 3 secondary schools(SMK Ambrose, SMK Methodist, SMJK Ayer Tawar) and more than 10 primary schools consisting of 3 Tamil primary school, 2 National (Malay) and 7 Chinese. The secondary schools are non-communal. However, Chinese students are the majority in two of the three, due to the demography of the town. About 6 kilometers away, there is the Nan Hua Chinese Independent Secondary School.

** Info courtesy of Wikipedia