Kuala Lumpur (KL) is far from Malaysia’s oldest, largest, or most populated city – those titles go to Malacca and Kuching respectively – but KL is certainly the most densely populated of cities anywhere in West or East Malaysia.

The KL area code is shared as far as Batu Caves to the north, Setiawangsa to the east, Sungai Besi to the south, and Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI) to the west – where the lines between KL and the surrounding satellite townships in Selangor are defined as much by popular opinion and naming conventions as by surveyors and city planners.

Home to only around 4,500 residents in 1884, there are now an estimated 1.77 million people living at an address bearing the KL postcode, inside an area amounting to about 243 square kilometres (km2). This puts the population...

Kuala Lumpur (KL) is far from Malaysia’s oldest, largest, or most populated city – those titles go to Malacca and Kuching respectively – but KL is certainly the most densely populated of cities anywhere in West or East Malaysia.

The KL area code is shared as far as Batu Caves to the north, Setiawangsa to the east, Sungai Besi to the south, and Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI) to the west – where the lines between KL and the surrounding satellite townships in Selangor are defined as much by popular opinion and naming conventions as by surveyors and city planners.

Home to only around 4,500 residents in 1884, there are now an estimated 1.77 million people living at an address bearing the KL postcode, inside an area amounting to about 243 square kilometres (km2). This puts the population density of KL proper at around 7,299 people per km2 – comparable to Bangkok (6,718 people per km2) and Singapore (8,076 people per km2).

Ever since its first appearance in written history in 1857, when a group of tin miners used a sleepy village as a staging point for expeditions into Ampang, people have gravitated to the muddy confluence of the Klang and Gombak rivers.As with other settlements born out of mineral rushes, KL owes its beginning to miners, and its rapid transformation into an urban sprawl, to the merchants and other tradespersons who endured malaria and the 70-kilometre (km) journey up the Klang river to follow them in the mid-19th century – some roads in KL still bear their names.

With modern transportation networks connecting opposite ends of the Klang River valley, that historic journey from Port Klang to Masjid Jamek, in the heart of KL, can be made in less than two hours by rail or under an hour by road. 

In the middle of this integrated transportation network is KL Sentral, a hub of rails that, with the help of several smaller interchanges distributed outside the city centre, connects the various far-flung suburbs in the Klang Valley with each other and puts nearly every high-rise building in KL’s core within a reasonable walking distance from a rail or bus station.

Despite being a city that is over a century and a half in age, KL’s most scenic roads have been retrofitted with pedestrian walkways, making it possible to forgo the convenience of public transportation and instead walk from the edge of the city’s limits to its historic centre for leisure.

One such route, of particular interest to roving foodies and nature lovers residing along KL’s western edge, entails a hike from the base of Bukit Kiara in TTDI, through the shaded boulevards and upscale neighbourhoods of Sri Hartamas and Damansara Heights, into DC Mall for an air-conditioned respite, and over the Damansara Link to Bangsar via the pedestrian walkway at the Pusat Bandar Damansara Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station.

From Bangsar, KL’s core can be reached through verdant locales such as Federal Hill, the Perdana Botanical Garden, and Taman Tugu. Those who prefer urban landscapes over parks might consider a detour to sample local cuisine in Brickfields and, with a stroll along the Klang River to burn calories, continue an escapade of eating onto Petaling Street.

In the evenings, KL residents and commuters alike fill the restaurants, cafés, and nightclubs in popular districts such as Bangsar, Changkat Bukit Bintang, TREC (the acronym for “Taste, Relish, Experience, and Celebrate”), and Asian Heritage Row.

The popularity of these districts, the infrastructure initiatives of past decades, and the tendency for KL residents to earn approximately 10% more than their peers living in other urban centres on the peninsula (such as Petaling Jaya, Penang, and Johor Bahru), have contributed to the median price per square foot (psf) for properties in KL’s core getting as high as RM2,000 psf, while bargains at the limits of the greater KL area can still be found as low as RM250 psf in places such as Bandar Tun Razak for example.

Just as the building of railways and roads across the Klang Valley have contributed to KL’s rapid growth, the upcoming High Speed Rail (HSR) link between Malaysia and Singapore is expected to have a similar effect. With the end of the proposed HSR line situated in Sungai Besi, about 5km south from the current centre of KL’s Golden Triangle, future development at KL’s outer limits is expected to further elevate property prices in the city centre.