Chow Kit is a suburb in central

Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a Federal Territories of Malaysia, federal territory of Malaysia. It is the largest city in the country, covering an area of with a census population ...

, Malaysia. It is located around Jalan Chow Kit (Chow Kit Road) and is enclosed by the parallel streets of Jalan Raja Laut and Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. It is named after

Loke Chow Kit Loke Chow Kit ( 1862– 28 August 1918) was a Malayan business magnate and philanthropist, who founded the first department store in Kuala Lumpur. Early life Loke Chow Kit, of Cantonese descent, was born in Penang, son of Loke Kum Choon, and ed ...

() a well-known miner, municipal councilor, public official, and also the first local owner of a department store - Chow Kit & Co – which was the largest in KL at the time. Today the area features a large

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

n community and known as "Little Jakarta". The majority of Indonesia's

Minangkabau Minangkabau may refer to: * Minangkabau culture, culture of the Minangkabau people * Minangkabau Culture Documentation and Information Center * Minangkabau Express, an airport rail link service serving Minangkabau International Airport (''see bel ...

, Javanese, and Acehnese open restaurants and as retailer. Recently, a small African community also lives there. There is a

night market Night markets or night bazaars ( zh, 夜市) are street markets which operate at night and are generally dedicated to more leisurely strolling, shopping, and eating than more businesslike day markets. The culture of night markets originates from C ...

also known as ''Bundle Chow Kit'' along Lorong Haji Taib which is known for the sale of used clothing and accessories.

Wet market

A daily wet market known as Bazaar Baru Chow Kit is the largest wet market in Kuala Lumpur, and a tourist attraction. A wide variety of

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

and

seafood Seafood is any form of Marine life, sea life regarded as food by humans, prominently including Fish as food, fish and shellfish. Shellfish include various species of Mollusca, molluscs (e.g., bivalve molluscs such as clams, oysters, and mussel ...

products are available for customers.

Red-light district

Chow Kit has traditionally been known as one of the major

red-light district A red-light district or pleasure district is a part of an urban area where a concentration of prostitution and sex industry, sex-oriented businesses, such as sex shops, strip clubs, and adult theaters, are found. In most cases, red-light district ...

s in

. Many of the

prostitute Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-pe ...

s are daughters of prostitutes that have grown up in the area. Malaysian director Justin Ong's 2013 film, ''Ida's choice'', is about a young woman in the red-light district.

Transportation

The

KL Monorail The KL Monorail Line is the only operational monorail system in Malaysia. Operated as part of the Rapid KL system by Rapid Rail, a subsidiary of Prasarana Malaysia, it is one of the components of the Klang Valley Integrated Transit System. Th ...

Chow Kit Monorail station is situated in this area, while the

PWTC LRT station PWTC LRT station is a light rail transit (LRT) station in Kuala Lumpur that is served by the Ampang Line and Sri Petaling Line. PWTC stands for "Putra World Trade Center", which was the former name of the World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur. The Worl ...

(

Ampang Line , , The LRT Ampang Line and the LRT Sri Petaling Line are medium-capacity light rapid transit (LRT) lines in the Klang Valley, Malaysia. The combined network comprises of tracks with 36 stations and was the first railway in Malaysia to us ...

) and

Hospital Kuala Lumpur MRT station The Hospital Kuala Lumpur MRT station is a Rapid transit, mass rapid transit (MRT) underground station located along Jalan Tun Razak (Circular Road) in downtown Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is one of the stations under the Putrajaya line, MRT Putraj ...

(

Putrajaya Line The MRT Putrajaya Line is the second Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line in Klang Valley, Malaysia, and the third fully automated and driverless rail system in the country. It was previously known as the MRT Sungai Buloh–Serdang–Putrajaya Line ...

) are located nearby.

In popular culture

*Chow Kit Road became the subject of the hit song, ''Chow Kit Road'', made famous by the late

Sudirman Arshad Dato' Sudirman bin Haji Arshad (25 May 1954 – 22 February 1992), known mononymously as Sudirman, was a Malaysian singer, songwriter and actor. His singing career kicked off after winning the Bintang RTM singing competition on 11 August, 1 ...

. Sudirman held an open-air concert on the road in 1986 to a 100,000-strong audience.Good ol’ charm of Jalan Chow Kit
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Gallery

File:SHOPPING_2_0042.jpg, The wet market File:MURTABAK_1_0031.jpg, Murtabak (pancake) seller File:CHICKEN_1_0050.jpg, Chicken meat in Chow Kit File:ANCHOVY_1_0058.jpg, Small-sized anchovies in Chow Kit File:Bazaar Baru Chow Kit 631.jpg,

Carambola Carambola, also known as star fruit, is the fruit of '' Averrhoa carambola'', a species of tree native to tropical Southeast Asia. The edible fruit has distinctive ridges running down its sides (usually 5–6). When cut in cross-section, it re ...

File:Bazaar Baru Chow Kit 632.jpg,

Pitaya Pitaya () or pitahaya () (common names strawberry pear or dragon fruit) is the fruit of several cactus species indigenous to the region of southern Mexico and along the Pacific coasts of Guatemala, Costa Rica, and El Salvador. Pitaya is cult ...

File:Bazaar Baru Chow Kit 634.jpg,

Durian The durian () is the edible fruit of several tree species belonging to the genus ''Durio''. There are 30 recognized species, at least nine of which produce edible fruit. ''Durio zibethinus'', native to Borneo and Sumatra, is the only species ...

References

{{Greater Kuala Lumpur African diaspora in Malaysia Suburbs in Kuala Lumpur Indonesian diaspora in Malaysia Red-light districts in Malaysia