From the chapter on "Chinatown- Bustling Business Centre" by Lynn Wong

In the movies, Chinatown tends to conjure up images of dirty, stinking dark alleys, gang fights, Bruce Lee and kung fu, sleazy clubs, brothels and prostitutes, run-down inns and shifty-eyed inn keepers, opium dealings etc. In contrast, Chinatown also brings to mind exotic pretty Chinese girls in pigtails and cheong sam, trishaw rides and colourful hand-driven cars, dramatic opera singers, quaint tea houses and tim sum, hawker stalls offering an assortment of wanton mee, Hainanese chicken rice, Teowchew porridge with salt fish and century eggs, the sweetly scented smell of burning incense and joss sticks which permeates the air and intoxicates the senses…

MALAYSIA’S OWN CHINATOWN might have evolved from these same intriguing and nostalgic beginnings. A walk down Petaling Street in Kuala Lumpur also known as Chinatown, today is a new revelation that will not only tickle your senses, thrill and tease your mind but also fill you with an elation, an unmistakable mysterious aura as you take in the colour, sights and smells around you.

Here in the main hub of Kuala Lumpur’s commercial centre, time stands still 

as is evident by the remaining relics of old buildings conserved with minimum 

renovation for their historic significance. The window displays of shops here are 

as ancient as the shops themselves, the owner being insusceptible to change......