Law Gek Soon Road in the early 70's

Law Gek Soon Road - view towards the Kemena River, 1970's
Note the old fish market at the center far background.

 This is the general view of Bintulu in the early 70's.  It was a small and sleepy town.  It's status was  a mere sub-district of Miri Division.  It has started to have a bus service and a few cars, including a jeep as seen in the picture above.  The shophouses on both sides of Law Gek Soon Road were built using posts and beams of belian timber and roofing of belian shingles.  The road was named after Law Gek Soon who was the first government Chief Clerk of Bintulu.  The shopkeepers lived on the first floor of the shophouses.  The shop at the extreme  left corner of the row belonged to Tai Hua Hardware.  It was from this shop that I ordered my 'scrambler', and was the first 'scrambler' (Yamaha Trail 125cc) to be seen in Bintulu.  The early 70's were pre- economic boom period.  The picture below shows the place during the fourth boom.

Law Gek Soon Road - view towards the Kemena River,27 June'14
Period : Bintulu during Fourth economic boom.
Note the blue coloured building at far center of the picture.  It replaced the old fish market (partly seen in the very top picture)
The blue building is named 'Pasar Utama' which houses a wet and dry market on the ground floor and a food court at the first floor.

Law Gek Soon Road in the mid 1980's

Law Gek Soon Road, mid 1980's

 The above pic shows the Law Gek Soon Road in the mid 1980's when Bintulu faced its first economic boom.  Compared to the present day (1 October, 2013) there are very stark differences in terms of the buildings structure(e.g. wooden shophouses), movement of traffic (  2-way versus 1 - way streets) and newer buildings that cropped up to make Bintulu town's image  on par with other major towns of Sarawak.  The blue cone-shaped building in the center background in the picture below  is the Main Market building or "Pasar Utama".  The tall pole in the center has a surveillance  camera attached as a crime preventive measure.  Today there is not a single remnant of wooden shophouses in Bintulu town.

Law Gek Soon Road, taken on 1 October, 2013

Law Gek Soon
First Government Chief Clerk of Bintulu.

Mr Law Gek Soon was born and bred in Bintulu. He was the first Government Chief Clerk of Bintulu.  He died during his service in 1918 at the age of 45.  The Law Gek Soon Road is named after him.