Petaling Jaya: Grand Malls and Much More

If you are at all familiar with the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, you perhaps have heard of its satellite township, Petaling Jaya, home to some of the largest malls of the KL area like 1Utama, IPC, Ikea, Sunway Pyramid and The Curve.
Petaling Jaya or ‘PJ’ as it is popularly known, is situated at a distance of 10 km from Kuala Lumpur city and is easily by road and rail from KL. Most visitors to Kuala Lumpur do pencil in visit to PJ, for aside from its grand malls, it also hosts one of Malaysia’s largest and most popular theme parks, the Sunway Lagoon complex.

The origin of Petaling Jaya can be traced back to the 1950’s, when it founded by the British to cope with the population boom in KL, during the era’s tin rush in the Klang valley.  Petaling Jaya was created out by clearing out an expansive patch of dense jungle, part of the Effingham Estate.

The town’s first settlement was made up of approximately 800 houses largely located in the area, which is today forms Petaling Jaya South. During its initial existence PJ, was administered and managed by the Kuala Lumpur district office and when KL was declared a Federal Territory in 1972,the administration of Petaling Jaya was placed under the jurisdiction of the state of Selangor. Petaling Jaya received city status as recently as in 2006.

Over the years, Petaling Jaya grew and developed rapidly. In fact, the primary cause for its rapid expansion is believed to be construction of the Federal Highway, after Malaysia gained independence from the British. The construction of this highway linked PJ to Kuala Lumpur and Port Klang and this link proved vital to its development, for in the early 1960’s PJ had expanded to encompass as many as over 3000 houses, 100 shops and more than 30 factories.

Today, PJ is a mixed-use residential and industrial community home to a population numbering more than 500,000 with ample representation of each of Malaysia’s three main ethnicities Malay, Chinese and Indian. 

Aside from modern-day malls and theme parks, PJ offers various old-world, attractions like its lively pasar malam (night market), held on Monday evenings on the streets of one of town’s oldest districts, SS2. Also of note are the town’s many indigenous coffee shops (kopitiams), which continue to survive in spite of the presence global chains like Starbucks and dish up native variations of  ‘Kopi’ or coffee.