George Town, Malaysia

As its nicknames (“Pearl of the Orient,” “Garden of the East,” and “Island of Pearls”) suggest, Penang Island is an exceptionally beautiful location, and with a population of just 740,000, the city is small enough that it’s easy to make friends and meet your neighbors.

Penang is a paradise for food lovers. In 2014 Lonely Planet named Penang the top food destination in the world. In a country that is so passionate about food that the common greeting is “Have you eaten yet?”

Penang stands out for the quality, the diversity and the low cost of dining options it offers.

ECA International rated George Town as being the most livable city in Malaysia. We agree (and so do our taste buds!).

In our opinion, Penang is one of the top spots in all of Southeast Asia for long-term living and retirement.

One of the many charms of George Town is the feeling it gives you of stepping back in time. Even beyond the city’s UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site heart, this city is a cornucopia of Chinese shop houses, pagodas, temples, churches, mosques, British-colonial buildings and landscaped parks.

Wholesalers, import and export businesses, and shipping companies dominate the southern section of Beach Street, as they have since the 1880s, and the docks of Weld Quay, which was established more than 120 years ago, are little changed today.

Impressive British-colonial buildings serve the same functions as they did more than a century ago, while many of the dilapidated Chinese shop houses have been scrubbed, painted, and renovated into attractive hotels, community centers, cafes, galleries and private homes.

In George Town, you’d never run out of things to do, from outdoor fun and historical exploration to dining adventures, nightlife, or an evening at the symphony.

Most importantly, art is everywhere in the old city. The Penang Philharmonic and the ProArt Chinese Orchestra both have venues in town. The Actors Studio at Straits Quay offers theater performances, as does the Performing Arts Centre of Penang, and there are special cultural events (Chinese opera and puppetry performances, for example) and impromptu concerts around town regularly.