Chinatown

Petaling Street is the historical shopping area in Kuala Lumpur’s China Town and is now covered by a rooftop; not sure if these are heritage protected buildings but suspect so. We arrived and things were just opening up. During the day, the stores and stalls sell their wares and at night is one of the city’s night markets. The Chinese first arrived in Malaysia (then called Malaya or Tanah Melayu) as workers in the tin mines. Mining stopped during the Selangor Civil War, and the Chinese returned after the war only to find the mines flooded. An influential Chinese businessman, Yap Ah Loy, wanted to encourage the Chinese to stay on in
Malaysia, so he set up a tapioca mill on Petaling Street and employed many Chinese to produce the starchy staple. The Chinese community settled in the surrounding areas and more Chinese stores and businesses
opened, forming Kuala Lumpur’s China Town.Read more