‘NOTHING CHINESE ABOUT PETALING STREET ANYMORE’: FOREIGN WORKERS FROM BANGLADESH HAVE TAKEN OVER

KUALA LUMPUR – Petaling Street, also known as Malaysia’s Chinatown are being shunned by foreign visitors and local tour guides.

Kuala Lumpur Tourist Guides Association immediate past chairman Wong Hing Tuck said the place is no longer the shopper’s haven it used to be.

“Local tour guides will not recommend visitors to go there.

“We are not condemning the place but basically we are honestly telling people, notably Chinese tourists, that it is not worth visiting.

Petaling Street, also known as Malaysia’s Chinatown are being shunned by foreign visitors and local tour guides. NSTP file pic/ NIK HARIFF HASSAN

“There is nothing Chinese about Chinatown anymore,” he told the New Straits Times.

Wong lamented that Chinatown had long been overrun by foreign workers especially from Bangladesh.

It is a far cry from Chinatown in other parts of the world, said Wong, who is also the second vice president in the Malaysian Tourist Guide Council.

He estimated that at least 60 per cent of the traders in Chinatown are foreigners.

Wong noted that the association held a meeting with the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) a few years back to discuss the situation, but nothing come to fruition.

Wong lamented that Chinatown had long been overrun by foreign workers especially from Bangladesh. NSTP file pic/ NIK HARIFF HASSAN

Meanwhile, Petaling Street is rated poorly on Tripadvisor, the popular website that provides hotel and restaurant reviews, accommodation bookings and other travel-related content.

It is rated a disappointing two out five by people who visited the place.

Among the grouses include the place being only one street, and packed full of cheap stalls selling pirated goods.

Others noted that despite being able to bargain, they still ended up being ripped off.

Visitors also complained that the place is always crowded and the people are rude.

NSTP file pic/ NIK HARIFF HASSAN

“All we saw were cheap fake handbags which do not interest us. Beware of pick pockets.” commented a tourist from Connecticut, United States.

The name Chinatown came about as the Chinese communities converged there in the early 18th century.

– NST