of the site. They were donated by the trust-holders of the trustee of the late Phuah Hin Leong (1844–1901). In October 1926, the school published its first annual. In May 1927, Ko resigned from health issues. He was replaced by Tang Tong Hou, who resigned in February 1929 to return to China. Ooi Cheow Cheng (1887–1962, alias Zao Liu) became the new provost in August 1930. Ooi, a student of the Nanyang Public School (1896–1904) from Haimen, was the founder and the first headmaster of the Haimen Middle School in Jiangsu, but was forced to resign amidst student protests and left China for Malaya shortly after. In December 1930, Chung Ling Old Boys Association, the first alumni organisation for the school was formed at Abu Siti Lane. During Ooi's tenure as provost, the campus underwent some extensions under efforts by the Old Boys Association and the Board of Governors. Ooi resigned in June 1931 to visit his family in China. His return to China was not welcomed and promptly moved to Shanghai to work as a librarian in the library of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). On 18 July 1931, David Chen was appointed as provost, replacing Huang. Further expansions on the campus were made in 1932, this time with funding from the local government. Multiple buildings west of the campus were purchased and converted into a library and multiple laboratories. During the turn of the 1930s, the insistence of the school on focusing on both English and Chinese education garnered a solid reputation as a well-established high school. This brought in foreign students across Asia, notably from neighbouring Siam and Singapore. The influx of new students heavily strained the usage of the recently expanded campuses, and in 1933 it was finally decided (under a mutual agreement between David Chen and the Board of Governors) to construct an entirely new campus from scratch in a new location. A twelve-men development committee was formed after approval. Calls for donations for the construction began and shortly after, the acquisition of a plot of land (designated as Lot 133) in size near Kampung Ayer Itam was made. Construction commenced on 10 October 1934, in conjunction with the National Day of the Republic of China (Double Tenth Day), marked by a stone-laying ceremony hosted by Khoo Beng Cheang. The cost of the construction in its entirety was estimated to be over 300-thousand Malayan dollars.