Chinatown, Kuala Lumpur

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Petalang street is a street lined with market stalls in the centre of Chinatown. However, don't forget to explore Chinatown's sidestreets, too with their dragon lamposts, hanging umbrellas, shops, temples, cafes.

The Lee Rubber Building is an Art Deco style building designed by A. O Coltman in the 1930s.The Lee Rubber Company was founded by philanthropist and businessman Lee Kong Chian. Lee was known as Southeast Asia's Pineapple and Rubber King. This building also has a slightly sinister history as it was once the headquarters of the Kempeitai, or Japanese secret service during World War Two.

We did not go inside the building, but it is now a shopping centre containing popular book store on the ground floor and trendy Peter Hoe fashion in the loft.

Chinese temples are either Buddhist or Taoist temples. Devotees gather at temples, lighting joss sticks and chanting prayers. The city's Chinese temples are heavily embellished, with arched entrances, pillars and carvings. You won't miss this bright red, incense-wreathed temple, located close to Chinatown. Time seems to stand still as you have your fortune read at the altar at Guan Di Temple in Chinatown. Hindu's flock to temples to give offerings or pujas to their chosen deities, seeking their blessings. Hindu temples are characterized by their intricately embellished tower like structures that crown the main temple like complex. Founded in 1873, the Sri Mahamariamman Temple is the city's oldest. Look up and you'll see the ornate and vibrant hues of its five-tiered Raja Gopuram tower of sculpted Hindu gods. Take time to enter the temple to view its large silver chariot. The Sri Mahamariamman Temple, several doors down from the Guan Di Temple, is an important cultural heritage.

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Petaling Street is one of the famous tourist outdoor markets in Kuala Lumpur. It is being located in a strategy location near the Pudu Long-Distant Bus Station, and surrounded by office buildings, old shop houses, and hotels.

The tourism board has overly emphasis promoting this outdoor market to foreign tourists, and covered up the street with transparent rooftops, line up with vendors selling counterfeited goods, like nike t-shirt, LV bags, and etc. It tries to impress the public with a giant LCD TV screen on the traditional Chinatown Gate. Would it be better to spend fund to preserve the rundown old shop houses? or build one or two museums to showcase the people life in the region?

The first time I visited here in 1990s, it was different than what it is like today. It was more like a local outdoor night market we called it " Pasar Malam", with local vendors selling daily use products with bargain price, and food vendors selling delicious street foods. Today, this place has became a market to ruin tourists' ringgits. Prices here are more expensive than anywhere else in Malaysia, so you need to bargain hard!!

Anyway, you can find some nice local restaurants serving Chinese food. There are some backpacker hostels and cafes nearby.

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Lee Rubber Building is one of those surviving old buildings in KL Chinatown, and also appealing in term of its well-maintained facade, wall and the interior. It is occupied for commercial use. It was the Public Bank, and now occupied by a giant book company in Malaysia, Popular Bookstore.

It is located between Jalan Tun Hs Lee and Jalan Hang Lekir, opposite Guan Di Temple.

Lee Rubber Building was built in 1930 by Lee Kong Chian, and designed by AO Coltman. Lee Kong Chian was a businessman, rubber magnate, banker, professor, and well known for Philanthropic work. He was a Singaporean, originally from Nan'an Fujian China. In 1960s, he formed Lee foundation in Kuala Lumpur to promote education and arts in the region. He built this building for the purpose.

Today, you can visit the building by shopping at Popular Bookstore. You can find English, Chinese, Malay books, stationary, CD or DVD at the bookstore.

Kuala Lumpur has a large chinese population and thereofr also a fairly big Chinatown.
It's located quite central in Kuaal Lumpur, close to Bukit bintang and little India.
Chinatown is a bustling place with lot's of trade going on and it's the place to go if you are looking for a cheap bargain while in Kuala Lumpur.
Chinatown is also the part of Kuala Lumpur that has most of the cheap places to stay, so if you are after a rock bottom cheap hotel then this is also the place.
For the same reason, most backpacker places are also located in Chinatown.

Forget Little India, not much happening there, but for a few carpet shops although we did find a decent restaurant that we enjoyed. Chinatown is a bustling place, lots of restaurants and the usual things to buy at such a market, bags, belts, T-shirts, watches and many fake items. Be ready to bargain hard, difficult to beat the Chinese at their own game.

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Chinatown was the first place we visited, immediately after hotel check in a few of us decided to visit Chinatown mid afternoon. Not the best time to visit during the heat of the afternoon, a smarter decision would have been the evening - Cool Air, Colourful Lights!

Again I was the leader for 5 or 6 of our group, and not a very good job as we left the train at the wrong station and had to walk a few hundred metres extra. It would have been OK if there had been shops, but some of the girls started to grumble in the heat.

We stumbled into Petaling Street and the colour of Chinatown, however it was mostly busy with the vegetable market. A few clothing shops were open, we could not find a decent coffee shop.

Lesson learnt, visit Petaling Street at night and you will have a wonderful time.

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Chinatown in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, is a special market to shopping. All tourist must go there. For more information about the cultural, building, history and community in Chinatown Kuala Lumpur, visit our blog at http://www.mentionangels.blogspot.com. Please leave a comment to article titled "Intercultural In Chinatown". We wrote the article for our project Intercultural Communication. We hope can add more information about the Chintown in the future. Thanks a lot for our guess.

The original Chinatown of KL was established during the British colonial days in the Petaling Street area as a settlement site for the Chinese community in KL. For years the area maintains much of its traditional atmosphere, with a Bhudist temple and shops selling incense, gems, traditional medicines as well as famous Chinese eateries.

Early in the afternoon till late evening vendors will spread their wares on the street with more items to sell. The place is especially notorious for imitation goods on sale here - from designer stuffs to illegal VCDs/DVDs.

Recently, the area has been upgraded with canopy roof covering the streets. Nevertheless, the area still maintains its charm and still pulling in the crowd for bargain hunting, especially for imitation goods.

Even if shoping or dining is not the main purpose of going there, wandering around in Chinatown still an enjoyable experience with its spectacular sights and sounds.

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For friends of a far eastern street market – including watching, eating, haggling and fake football shirts – this is the place to be in Kuala Lumpur. The market at Petaling Street is right in the heart of Chinatown in a pedestrianized zone. Its central point is the crossing of Petaling Street with Jalan Hang Lekir, which you will identify quickly. Even if you don't dare to buy or eat anything, it is worth to enjoy the atmosphere, especially at night. For those how wish to eat something, you will find street stalls at the borders of the market as well as some smaller restaurants around. Furthermore, there are also mobile street vendors of cold drinks and snacks. The goods you can get there range from tourist souvenirs via fake brand clothes and bootleg DVDs to household items. If you want to buy anything (excluding food), try to haggle. I did not bought anything, but the friends I was with made some good experiences by starting with 40-50%of the asked price. Although the area is generally lively and safe, be aware of pickpockets. And remember that some of those goods may cause a conflict with customs and laws in another country.
Anyway, Petaling Street Market is still something I would recommend, even just for the taste of real street food and the atmosphere.

We were staying at D'Oriental Hotel in ChinaTown. D'Oriental Inn is in the centre of Chinatown so we were able to see all the colors of Chinatown in all the hours of the day.
Petaling Street is the center of Kuala Lumpur's original Chinatown. It's the place that never sleeps. Adventurous visitors should not miss a walk on Petaling Street.
Even in daytime you have great bargains. Petaling Street is not open for the traffic. It is a great place for locals to get some goods at bargain prices and certainly an eye-opening experience for tourists.
Chinatown has a bustling market serving as a bargain hunter's paradise and one of the premier shopping areas in the city with its distinctly oriental atmosphere.
Petaling Street is particularly famous for its all-day parade of stalls, that sell imitation goods of all sorts, like: wallets, handbags, t-shirts, watches, shoes and many other things.
You can buy imitation goods of Rolex, Seiko, Cartier, Christian Dior, Adidas, Nike, Calvin Klein, Armani, Gucci, Prada, D&G, Louis Vuitton.
Bargaining here is an absolute must. Bargain hard! It's the ideal place to test your bargaining skills.
The area attracts many locals and visitors in search of bargain items, including inexpensive dresses, sunglasses, shoes, fabrics and souvenirs.
You can get anything from food to bags and sunglasses to handicrafts all along Petaling Street. We bought sunglasses, wrist watches, wallets, T shirts, bags, miniatures of twin towers etc. Chinatown is a must visit place in KL.

This wonderful Art Deco building is located in Chinatown and was actually owned by the Tin Smelting Company when it was built in 1930 before the Less Rubber Company took it over in 1939. It was here that the Japanese surrender on the 15th August 1945, when the commander in chief of the Japanese Seventh Area Army in Singapore and Malaya, Seishiro Itagaki, surrender to the British administration following the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Today it's a book store.

Petaling Street is the main street in LK's Chinatown district which is located to the southeast of Merdeka Square. It is infamous for pirated branded clothes and accessories such as belts, Rolex watches etc along with bootleg DVDs and CDs but, however, does not exclusively offer pirated products. The main street features several stalls plus guesthouses, hostels, boutique hotels and dozens of restaurants and food stalls. Have your wits about you as you walk through this area as pick-pocketing is common plus also switch yourself into haggling mode if you want to buy something.

Surrounded by tall skyscrapers and the monorail, this colonial looking building stands at a busy junction to the south of Chinatown. It stages occasional shows of Chinese traditional dance and theatre, though no English translation is provided.