Climb Bukit China, the largest Chinese cemetery outside China
12,500 graves over three hills
Twenty-five hectares of terraced graves over three hills immediately east of the old town, with Poh San Teng temple and the fifteenth-century Sultan's Well at the southwestern foot. Open ground, always accessible, free.
Why it's unique
Twenty-five hectares over three hills, holding more than 12,500 graves, some of them Ming-dynasty era, plus about twenty Muslim tombs. The hill was granted to Hang Li Poh, the Ming princess of the legend, and her retinue in the fifteenth century. Regional press repeats the claim that it is the largest Chinese burial ground outside China, and that is the standard description of it.
At the southwestern foot are Poh San Teng temple, built in 1795, and the Sultan's Well, dug in 1459, said never to have run dry and the city's main freshwater source for four hundred years. So the walk is a hill climb through terraced graves that starts at a fifteenth-century well, and residents jog it, which tells you it is a park as much as a cemetery.
Before you go
Go up from the Poh San Teng temple end and come down the far side. The graves are terraced and this is a genuine hill walk, so go early morning or after five, and bring water.
The well is caged now because of the coin-throwing. The tradition attached to it is that drinking from it guarantees your return to Melaka, a claim that predates the tourism board by several centuries. During Qingming in early April the whole hill is occupied by families sweeping graves, and it is not a place to wander with a camera then.