Kuala Lumpur is a capital city of Malaysia. It occupies area of about 243 sq km. Founded as a tin-mining camp in 1857, it was made capital of the Federated Malay States in 1895, of the independent Federation of Malaya in 1957, and of Malaysia in 1963. It was designated a municipality in 1972. The most important Malay city on the Malay Peninsula, it is a commercial centre. It is the site of the Petronas Twin Towers, the world's tallest buildings when they were completed in 1998. Its educational institutions include the University of Malaya and Universiti Kebangsaan. Take in its high-flying triumphs from the viewing deck of the world's tallest building, then dive down to explore its more traditional culture in the back lanes of Chinatown.
It's a modern Asian city of gleaming skyscrapers, but it retains much of the local colour that has been wiped out in other Asian boom-cities such as Singapore. It has plenty of colonial buildings in its centre, a vibrant Chinatown with street vendors and night markets, and a bustling Little India.