Where to Stay in Shah Alam, Selangor

What is Shah Alam known for?

Shah Alam was drawn up as the first planned city in Malaysia after independence from Britain in 1957, which is why its layout answers to a drawing board rather than to a river crossing or an old market square. Government moved in later. The state capital of Selangor transferred here in 1978, and Muzium Sultan Alam Shah, i-City and the Setia City Convention Centre have since given the place a public face of its own.

What are the main landmarks in Shah Alam?

The state museum leads. Muzium Sultan Alam Shah keeps the Selangor collection in the planned centre, while i-City supplies the contrast, a lit leisure development that has become the most recognisable night-time sight in the city. Older buildings sit at the rim.

Gedung Raja Abdullah and the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes Klang belong to the Klang District portion, while the Catholic Church of St. Ignatius stands well inside Shah Alam itself.

What is the history of Shah Alam?

Kuala Lumpur left the state in 1974. Its incorporation as a Federal Territory took the capital out of Selangor's hands, and the state needed somewhere else to govern from, which is the whole reason this city exists in the form it does. The answer was to build one.

Rather than promote an existing town, Selangor commissioned a planned city, the first raised in Malaysia after independence from Britain in 1957. The transfer took effect in 1978. Shah Alam became the state capital in that year, taking the role Kuala Lumpur had held and leaving Klang with the royal title it still carries.

Boundaries followed function. The new city was laid mostly within Petaling District, with a small portion reaching into the neighbouring Klang District, and it spread across roughly 290 square kilometres of ground that had carried no city before. Institutions arrived on schedule.

Muzium Sultan Alam Shah took the state collection, the Catholic Church of St. Ignatius served an incoming congregation, and the Setia City Convention Centre came later to handle the business that a capital attracts. Leisure was the last layer. i-City, Sunway Lagoon, Surf Beach and the Lost City of Gold belong to a phase in which a purpose-built administrative city began drawing visitors who had no dealings with the government at all.

Where is Shah Alam?

Two districts share the ground. Shah Alam covers roughly 290 square kilometres, the bulk of it inside Petaling District with a smaller portion crossing into the neighbouring Klang District on the western side. Klang adjoins it directly.

The planned grid gives way to Klang's older streets along that boundary, with no belt of open country between the two to mark the change.

What is the climate of Shah Alam?

Rain moves in across Klang District. That inflow of moist air gives Shah Alam heavy afternoon storms through most of the year, while temperature barely registers a season at all and the humidity holds near its ceiling from one month to the next. Evenings clear quickly.

Water can stand on the wide planned roads for an hour after a downpour, then drain away before dark.

How do you get to Shah Alam?

Arrivals come through Klang or the capital. Shah Alam lies on the corridor between Kuala Lumpur and Klang, so nearly every road approach crosses one of them before it reaches the planned grid at the centre. The layout helps once inside.

Wide distributor roads were part of the original design, which puts the Setia City Convention Centre and i-City within easier reach by car than their distance from the middle would suggest.