A Walk Through Chow Kit
Chow Kit is one of the few remnants of the tin mining town that Kuala Lumpur used to be. It’s a scruffy collection of shophouses surrounding a big, sloppy street market, where the area’s diverse mix of residents — including a large community of Indonesian immigrants — come to shop.
Still, though the market is lively, you get the sense that Chow Kit is a suit that’s been worn too many times; its fabric is starting to wear thin. It might have been because I visited the day after a holiday, at the tail end of Hari Raya — the local celebration of Eid ul-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, when people traditionally return to their hometowns — but the whole neighbourhood felt a bit bedraggled, its best days gone by, vulnerable to the glossy malls and highrises marching in from every direction.
Tags: Exploring the City, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Shophouses
Brian says:
Fascinating photos. Some of those old arcaded shophouses look a lot like early 20th century buildings in Taiwan, a resemblance which I didn’t quite expect.
October 19th, 2010 at 11:22 pm