Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur

Relatively speaking, Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur, commonly abbreviated to KL, is one of Southeast Asia’s youngest capital cities. History says it was originally founded by Chinese migrants as a remote tin mining settlement during the 1850s before eventually emerging as the capital of the newly independent Federation of Malaya some hundred years later in 1957. Since 1999 the even younger city of Putrajaya has actually become the official seat of government and administrative centre, although in every other respect KL remains the de facto capital. As was the case with for example Brasilia or Canberra, Putrajaya was very much a purpose-built capital allowing the relocation of all things governmental from cramped and congested KL to spacious, spanking new structures elsewhere. The same applies to what is Southeast Asia’s newest capital city, Nyapidaw – which replaced Yangon (Rangoon) in 2006. Significantly, both new cities were built by independent Malaysia and Myanmar rather than by their former colonial masters.

Conversely, the cities of Jakarta and Hanoi can trace their histories back centuries, if not millennia; modern day Phnom Penh and Vientiane both house vestiges dating back to the Angkorian era while Bangkok received capital city status back in 1782.

In colonial times, George Town (Penang), Malacca (modern-day Melaka) and of course Singapore were the most important cities of the Malay Peninsula and KL took sometime to take off. For much of the 19th century it was by all accounts a Wild West sort of swampy, jungle settlement renowned for lawlessness, malaria and cholera and whose wooden hovels were regularly destroyed by floods and fires. The town had been established at the meeting point of the Klang and Gombak Rivers with the name Kuala Lumpur translating literally as ‘muddy confluence’. Undoubtedly an accurate description but not a great PR move.

It wasn’t until the end of the 19th century that the town was rebuilt and cleaned up and a railway line built connecting it to the port of Klang, in order to correspond with a new found status as capital of Selangor State. It was during this period that many of the imposing Victorian-style buildings and rows of brick, Chinese shop houses that we still see today appeared. The budding colonial town was centered around the Royal Selangor Club (or Padang) grounds, today renamed Merdaka or Independence Square and the cricket pitch and pavilion still stand opposite the majestic government offices, completed in 1897. The lovingly restored, elaborate fusion of Victorian and Moorish architecture fills the area between the Square and the Gombak River to the east while the minarets of the equally spectacular Kuala Lumpur Railway Station, which replaced the original structure in 1917, lie a short distance south. (Brighton Pavilion definitely wouldn’t look out of place in downtown KL.)

Although the entire settlement began life as a Chinese town and scattered clutches of the distinctive shop-houses survive here and there, the largest and best-preserved concentration is found in the aptly named Chinatown District centered around the Petaling Street and Jalan Sultan area to the east of the Klang River. An extensive, labyrinthine Chinatown once sprawled across much of this central area, in a style seen today in Malacca and particularly George Town, but regrettably much was demolished, along with crumbling Victoriana during the city’s rush to modernisation in the latter part of the 20th century. Symbolic of this were of course the iconic Petronas Towers which became the World’s tallest building on completion in 1998.

There was a distinct sense of competitiveness – and undoubtedly envy – with nearby Singapore, (which after having been expelled from the Malaysian Federation in 1965 rapidly emerged as one of the planet’s wealthiest and most highly developed states) and KL’s sometimes hasty attempts to rival its neighbour led to some ill conceived and poorly executed projects. There’s also sometimes an unfinished feel, as seen for example in our post’s featured image where corrugated iron shacks sit at the foot of the ultra-modern Towers.

With the small, albeit vibrant Chinatown area now forming one of the city’s biggest tourist draws and the well-preserved Chinatown’s of George Town and Malacca even receiving UNESCO World Heritage status, no doubt KL city council now wish they hadn’t been in such a hurry with their wrecking balls and bulldozers.

Aside from Merdaka Square and Petaling Street, the city’s spectacular National Mosque, now occupying the Y-shaped plot of the aforementioned confluence, the lush Perdana Botanical Gardens and parkland west of the Square and the Brickfields/Little India quarter are all deserving of mentions. On a good day the contrasting street level bustle, overhead railways and high-rise of downtown can resemble a set for Blade Runner, on a bad day, a hectic mess and while it may never feature as your favourite Southeast Asian capital, it is certainly, in our opinion, required viewing.