Taiping Lake Gardens, Public park in Taiping, Malaysia

Taiping Lake Gardens is a public park of about 64 hectares in Taiping, Perak, built on the flooded pits of a former tin mine. It holds around ten lakes and ponds, including West Lake, Swan Lake and the Jungle Lake, bordered by grass and by rain trees (Samanea saman) whose crowns meet above the water. Misty, forested hills rise behind the shore.

The park originated in 1880 from abandoned tin mines when Colonel Robert Sandilands Frowd Walker began transforming them into Malaysia's first public garden. This conversion marked a turning point in how the region approached urban development, turning a mined landscape into a place for public enjoyment.

The garden's eight scenic spots were devised by Xu Jianwu, a poet teaching at Hua Lian High School, together with local students, who matched eight views of their hometown to sites around the lakes. Their names include "Listening to Apes at Huanggang", "Waiting for the Moon on the Zigzag Bridge" and "Solo Fishing on the Flat Pond".

The gardens sit between Taiping town centre and the Taiping Zoo, with Bukit Larut rising nearby. Ten lakes and ponds are linked by paths and roads, so a loop on foot passes water on both sides. Ipoh is about 70 km away and Penang about 90 km, reached via the Kamunting or Changkat Jering exits of the North-South Expressway; Taiping's railway station is on the main north-south line.

The golden rain trees along Residency Road are the angsena (Pterocarpus indicus), which in Taiping grows taller than elsewhere in Malaya. Their yellow blossoms fall like "golden snow", and a 1930s account notes the scent is sweeter than the pinang blossom. Yellow was the royal colour in the East.