Selangor, Malaysia — Towns & Travel Guide

What is Selangor known for?

Much of what everyone treats as the capital region actually sits on Selangor soil, from the airports in the south to the port that fronts the coast. It anchors the Klang Valley, the sprawling conurbation that forms the economic heart of Malaysia. Port Klang works the country's busiest sea trade.

Batu Caves draws pilgrims up its limestone hill to the Hindu shrines carved inside. Tin made its fortune, and its formal name carries the Arabic honorific Darul Ehsan, the Abode of Sincerity.

Where is Selangor?

Selangor lies on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, facing the Strait of Malacca. It curls right around the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, both of which were carved out of the state and now sit as enclaves within it. The land tilts from sea to mountain.

Along the coast it runs flat and low, threaded with mangrove and river mouths that open onto the strait. Move east and it climbs into the Titiwangsa Mountains, the granite spine that divides the peninsula down its length, with Mount Semangkok rising as the highest point in the state. Two rivers order the state.

The Klang River drains west out of the hills through the heart of the conurbation and reaches the sea at Port Klang, while the Langat River waters the farming districts to the south around Banting. Perak borders Selangor to the north across the Bernam River, Pahang lies over the mountains to the east, and Negeri Sembilan sits along the southern edge. The Klang Valley fills the middle ground between coast and range.

It is where nearly everyone in the state lives.

What is Selangor like?

Selangor is Malaysia at its most mixed. The tin mines pulled in Chinese labourers by the tens of thousands in the nineteenth century, and Tamil workers followed onto the plantations, layering onto a Malay heartland already ruled by a Bugis-descended royal line. That history is why a single street here can hold a mosque, a Chinese temple and a Hindu shrine.

Malay is the common language, but Cantonese, Hokkien and Tamil are all spoken across the Klang Valley, and English carries much of the business of daily life. Food is the plainest expression of the mix. Klang built a whole cuisine around bak kut teh, the peppery pork-rib broth said to have started with dockworkers at its port.

Batu Caves stages Thaipusam, when huge crowds climb the steps to the shrines inside the limestone hill. Shah Alam gathers around the Blue Mosque, one of the largest in the region, while the newer suburbs run on shopping malls and hawker stalls in equal measure. The state feels less like a single place than a dense weave of towns that grew into one another.

What is the history of Selangor?

The Selangor Sultanate was founded in 1766, when Raja Lumu was installed as its first sultan, the only Malay state on the peninsula founded by the seafaring Bugis. Its wealth came from tin, dug from the hills and floated down the Klang River to the coast. That wealth turned deadly.

Rival chiefs and Chinese mining factions fought the Selangor Civil War, the Klang War, from 1867 to 1874, and the ruin it left let Britain force a Resident on the sultan in 1874. The capital later moved from Klang to the planned city of Shah Alam.

What is the climate of Selangor?

Selangor sits close to the equator, and its weather barely shifts through the year. Days are hot and humid, and afternoon thunderstorms build up over the Titiwangsa Mountains before rolling west toward the Strait of Malacca coast. Rain is the real variable, not temperature.

The heaviest downpours come with the year-end monsoon, when November and December turn the rivers brown, while the drier stretch falls around the middle of the year. Expect warm nights and short, violent showers.

How do you get to Selangor?

Most visitors reach Selangor by plane. Malaysia's main international airport sits at Sepang, in the far south of Selangor, and a fast rail link runs from there straight into Kuala Lumpur at the state's centre. From the capital, commuter trains and the ringing expressways reach Petaling Jaya, Shah Alam and Klang within the hour.

Port Klang anchors the coast on the Strait of Malacca for ferries out to Pulau Ketam and the islands. Getting around means the Klang Valley's dense web of road and rail.