 Selangor Travel Guide
Kota Darul Ehsan Arch (29 December 2006)
© Timothy Tye using this photo
Selangor Darul Ehsan is the most developed and most populous state in Malaysia. It is home to some of the biggest cities in the country. Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, is located in the Federal Territory, an area carved out of Selangor in 1974. The administrative capital of Malaysia, Putrajaya, was also created when Selangor ceded the land to the federal government. It became another federal territory in 2001.
Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Mosque, Shah Alam (29 December 2006)
© Timothy Tye using this photo
Selangor covers an area of 7,956 square kilometers (3,071 square miles). It has a population approaching 5.2 million people (2010 estimate). The capital of Selangor is Shah Alam while the royal capital is Klang. The biggest city in Selangor is Petaling Jaya, which is within the Kuala Lumpur metropolitan area known as the Klang Valley.
After Malacca fell to the Portuguese, Selangor was a no-man's land contested by neighbouring states including the newly established Johor and Perak, as well as by the Portuguese in Malacca, along with the Acehnese and the Siamese. The Minangkabaus that had established themselves in Negri Sembilan had also settled in Selangor. By 1740, however, they were displaced by the Bugis, from whom the present rulers of Selangor trace their ancestry.
Tin ore was found in abundance in Selangor in the 1850s, in about the same time that the ore was discovered in Larut in Perak. The arrival of Chinese coolies to extract the tin in Ampang, near the confluence of the Klang and the Gombak rivers led to the founding of what was to become the most important city in the country, Kuala Lumpur.
Kuala Lumpur International Airport
Author: Craig (public domain)
As in the case in Perak, the prosperity from tin caused rivalry between the Malay chieftains, who each found allies from rival Chinese secret societies. The warfare that constantly erupt gave the British the excuse to intervene and establish their authority in Selangor.
In 1874, the very same year that the Pangkor Treaty was signed in Perak, the Sultan of Selangor was forced to accept a British Resident. In a sense, Selangor benefited from the ensuing order provided by British rule, and prospered from the wealth brought by tin mining. There was no turning back the tide as Selangor raced ahead of the other states to become the most developed and wealthiest state in the country.
The growth of Selangor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was propelled by the discovery of tin in Kuala Lumpur. By the beginning of the 20th century, large forested areas of Selangor were being developed into rubber and palm oil plantations. Many of these plantations have seen made way for urban development in the form of residential and industrial estates.
Ikea at Mutiara Damansara in Selangor, the biggest Ikea store in Southeast Asia (27 June 2009) © Timothy Tye using this photo
Gedung Raja Abdullah, Klang (29 December 2006)
© Timothy Tye using this photo
Jalan Tengku Kelana is the Little India of Klang (29 December 2006)
© Timothy Tye using this photo
Getting there
By Road
Selangor can be reached by taking the North South Expressway Northern Route from Perak, the North South Expressway Southern Route and the ELITE Highway from Negri Sembilan, and the Karak Highway from Pahang.
Location Map of Selangor
Click here if you are unable to view the map.
View Selangor in a larger map
Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, Klang (29 December, 2006)
© Timothy Tye using this photo
KLIA Control Tower
Author: Mausmaus (GFDL)
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