Petaling Jaya
The article mainly deals with the details of a Malaysian city named Petaling Jaya. The city is originally organized as a satellite community for Kuala Lumpur. The city is also known as PJ by the locals. The city mainly comprises of some industrial and mostly of residential regions. The city of Petaling Jaya is situated in the famous Petaling ward of Selangor. The dimension is approximately around ninety-seven kilometer square. The status of city was granted to Petaling Jaya on 20 June 2006. After that, the city is popularly known as the one of the most urbanized cities in Malaysia. And Petaling Jaya is a non-capital city.
History
The history of Petaling Jaya dates back to 1952. The developers of the city were none other than British. The city crawled over 486 hectares of Effingham Estate. The city was a solution to the serious difficulty of extra population and shortage of land in Kuala Lumpur. Since then, Petaling Jaya acquired fame and a dramatic geometric growth in terms of geographical importance and population size. The urbanization of the city started with the construction of more than eight hundred houses. The “Old Town” area is the oldest area to get urbanized.
The sections of City
Petaling Jaya is hugely divided into various divisions. Some of these divisions are further divided into smaller areas. Places like Kampung Tunku are very small and yet have their own name.
Demographics
According to the statistics of Petaling Jaya checked in 2000, there were more than 355,530 residents within the region of 51.4 square kilometer. The statistics changed dramatically by 2003, when there were a bit more than 450,000 citizens of the city without considering the overall population into proper account. According to assumptions, the total population would have succeeded over 1.5 million. The population mainly has 55 % of Chinese, 13 % of Indians, 30 % of Malays and the rest comprises of many other races. There are four Members of Parliament serves the citizens of Petaling Jaya.
Landmarks
One of the most prominent landmarks of the city is Kota Darul Ehsan arch. It characteristically marks the border between Petaling Jaya and the other major cities. Federal Highway is well straddled with the arch. It was in the initial days, considered as the only highway path between Kuala Lumpur and the main city. In the present day, many other ways exist as substitute choices. The Thai Wat Chetawan temple is located near the Kelana Jaya Station. The building is ornately designed and decorated. The design is completely authenticated and represents the ancient culture of Thai people. It is mainly situated in the valley of Klang and is also very popular among the monks of Buddhist society. The Central Business region of the city is also known as PJ state. The Menara MBPJ acts as a focal point of Petaling Jaya. This section of the city is also known as PJ New town. The Mutiara Damansara is popularly known as the shopping paradise of Petaling Jaya.
Economy
The people of the city own a variety of traditional shops that represent the traditions of the city well. Several large shopping complexes along with several medium shops boost the economy of the city. The Thrifty Super Market was the very first structure that resembled the present day shopping center back in those days. There are many other renowned supermarkets of the region such as Pok Brothers Mini Market, Ben’s Mini Market and that too functioned in PJ new town.
The current developments
During 1980s, the development of Atria in Petaling Jaya helped the general public to patronize either the French Printemps or Japanese Kimisawa departmental stores. Burger King Restaurant was one of the famous restaurants back in those days. The department stores did not endure the recession period of 1980. Even the Burger King had to close down. During the early 2000s, these departmental stores reappeared. The latest anchor tenant of Atria is Giant Supermarket and both have ceased functioning and also undergoing demolition process for further development.
The transport service
The infrastructure and amenities of transportation are well renowned and maintained in Petaling Jaya. The mini-buses of the city were introduced back in mid-eighties. The citizens of the city had various and fast means to visit Kuala Lumpur through these buses. The mini-buses are available at an interval of every ten minutes. In the initial years of 1990s, most of the Sri Jaya buses and mini-buses were replaced by the IntraKota bus system. The bus system was replaced by DRB-Hicom. The metrobus service was also introduced in the several bus routes of Petaling Jaya. The waiting time of the buses increased to thirty-sixty minutes due to the absence of the mini buses. Putra LRT service was introduced in 1998 with the addition of Putraline Feeder bus services. The above mentioned combination brought enough relief to several residents of the city. The people who mainly depend on the public transportation got several benefits from the collaboration.
Education
There are many renowned universities and colleges present in the city such as International Islamic University Malaysia, also known as IIUM. The university is the center for foundation of education in the city. Other universities include names like MARA university of Technology. The number of colleges counts up to 23 prestigious colleges. Tunku Abdul Rahman University, Unitar, Food Institute of Malaysia, and many other universities comprise the main the education system of the city. Other than colleges and universities, there are many secondary schools known for quality education such as Bukit Bintang Boys School, La Salle PJ, and SMK Damansara Utama. The oldest schools from the pages of history still run successfully in the oldest region of Old Town.