Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur is the capital of Malaysia. Its name, meaning in Malay "muddy confluence" is due to its location at the confluence of two rivers: the greater the Klang River, and one of its tributaries, the Gombak.

Torn from the jungle, the city owes its birth and fortune to abundant tin deposits discovered in the nineteenth century. Kuala Lumpur was long an encampment of bamboo huts infested with malaria. It grows through the trade in tin for the capital of the Federated Malay States to become, in 1896, and reach today a population of 1.6 million inhabitants. Its metropolis is over 6 million (urban area).

Elevated to city status (Bandar Malay) only in 1897, Kuala Lumpur has been known for unbridled growth. She was separated in 1971 from the State of Selangor which it was previously the capital (since replaced in this role by the new city of Shah Alam), to become a federal territory.
Located west of Malaysia, 45 km from the sea, the city now covers an extensive metropolitan area called the "Klang Valley" and that goes far beyond the limits of the federal district encompassing much of the State of Selangor. The vast suburban sprawl is concomitant with a dense network of highways and three subway lines light performance.

Urbanization is very dense westward to the town of Klang, which serves the whole country with its port.

Kuala Lumpur is a city heavily polluted. Industries, cars and other polluters are the 23th most polluted city in the world (compared to Paris which is 45th)

The city is connected to Singapore and Penang south to the north by a highway that continues to Hat Yai in Thailand. An east-west highway through the city of Kuantan and the states of Terengganu and Pahang.

Many railroads crisscross the town, however the major axis follows the Malay Peninsula. The city is served by two railway stations: the Kuala Lumpur and the Kuala Lumpur Sentral.

Air communications are from Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang located and the newest low-cost terminal (Low Cost Carrier Terminal) and Subang (charter).