An art deco wet market turned craft hall, and a covered street of counterfeit watches. One is worth your time.
Two adjacent things with very different characters, and visitors usually do both.
Central Market
Pasar Seni opened in 1888 as Kuala Lumpur’s wet market — meat, fish and vegetables for the whole town — and was rebuilt in 1937 in art deco with the pale blue frontage you see now.
It was due for demolition in the 1980s. A heritage campaign saved it, the wet market moved out, and it reopened as a crafts and culture centre in 1986. It is now a Class II heritage site.
Inside: two floors of small units selling batik, songket, pewter, wood carving, Sarawak and Sabah crafts, kites, beadwork, paintings and a great deal of ordinary tourist merchandise.
The quality is very mixed and the two things are next to each other. Genuine hand-drawn batik is sold a few metres from printed cotton, at prices that reflect the difference if you ask. Real Royal Selangor pewter is sold alongside cheap alloy.
What is actually worth buying here: batik if you learn to tell canting work from print, pewter from a proper counter, and the Sarawak textiles and basketry, which are not easy to find elsewhere.
There is a good food court upstairs, Kasturi Walk — a covered arcade alongside — and it is air-conditioned, which matters more than it sounds.
Petaling Street
The covered street at the heart of Chinatown, under a green roof installed in 2003, with a Chinese arch at each end.
It is, principally, a counterfeit goods market, and this guide is not going to pretend otherwise. Watches, bags, sunglasses, football shirts, electronics, all fake, all sold openly, and all subject to hard bargaining.
Buying counterfeits is illegal in most countries you might carry them home to, and customs do seize them.
There is also genuine street food at the two ends and down the side lanes — the air mata kucing stall, the Hokkien mee, the roast meat shops — and that is the reason to walk it.
Bargaining is expected on the market stalls. Start well below the asking price, be good-humoured, and be prepared to walk away.
Watch your pockets. It is crowded and it is one of the few places in Kuala Lumpur where pickpocketing is a real risk.
What is better nearby
REXKL, a converted 1940s cinema a few minutes away, now a bookshop, café and event space, and where the younger creative scene actually is.
Kwai Chai Hong, a restored back lane off Petaling Street with murals, lanterns and small bars, done well and genuinely pleasant.
The Chinatown shophouse streets — Jalan Sultan, Jalan Panggong, Jalan Petaling itself away from the covered section — for old shops, temples, and coffee.
Royal Selangor Visitor Centre, further out at Setapak, where the pewter is actually made, with a factory tour and a workshop where you can hammer your own dish. Free entry, and much better value than buying pewter from a market stall.
Practical
LRT Pasar Seni is at the door of Central Market.
Central Market is open daily, roughly ten to ten. Petaling Street runs into the evening and is at its busiest and best from about seven.
