ASIANOVERLAND.NET SYDNEY TO LONDON DAY 54/348: SELANGOR, MALAYSIA

Selangor is one of the 13 states of Malaysia, bordered by Perak to the north, Pahang to the east, Negeri Sembilan to the south and the Strait of Malacca to the west. Selangor surrounds the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, both previously part of Selangor.

The Royal City of Klang is a former capital of the state of Selangor, Malaysia, prior to the emergence of Kuala Lumpur and the current capital, Shah Alam. Port Klang is the 12th busiest container port in the world.

The royal town of Klang has been a site of human settlement since prehistoric times and was the most important settlement of the area in the ancient period. Bronze Age drums, axes and other artefacts have been found in the town. A bronze bell dating from the 2nd century BC was found in Klang and is now in the British Museum. Also found in Klang are iron tools called "tulang mawas" ("ape bones") and a bronze drum. 

Commanding the approaches to the tin rich Klang Valley, Klang has always been of key strategic importance. It was mentioned as a dependency of other states as early as the 11th century, and in 14th century literary works of the Majapahit Empire. The Klang River was marked and named on the earliest maritime charts of Chinese Admiral Cheng Ho, who visited Malacca from 1409 to 1433.

Klang was under the control of the Malacca Sultanate in the 15th century. The celebrated Tun Perak, Malacca's greatest ruler, came from Klang and became its territorial chief. Klang was known as a producer of tin and produced large quantities of tin each year when the Portuguese occupied Malacca. Over time, tin mining and deforestation destroyed rainforests, the habitat of indigenous orangutan, nowadays seen at Selangor Zoo.

Klang remained in Malay control after the fall of Melaka to the Portuguese in 1511, and was controlled by the Sultan of Johor-Riau. The Selangor sultanate including Klang, was created in 1766.

In the 19th century the importance of Klang greatly increased due to the rapid expansion of tin mining as a result of increased demand for tin from the West. The desire to control the Klang Valley led directly to the Klang War (also called the Selangor Civil War) of 1867–1874 when Raja Mahdi fought to regain what he considered his birthright as territorial chief against Raja Abdullah. 

In 1874, British gunboat diplomacy resulted in Selangor accepting a British Resident who would "advise" the Sultan, and Klang became the capital of British colonial administration for Selangor from 1875 until 1880, when the capital city was moved to Kuala Lumpur due to the growth of Kuala Lumpur tin-mining. 

Until the construction of Port Swettenham (now Port Klang) in 1901, Klang remained the chief outlet for Selangor's tin, and the Klang Valley railway to Bukit Kuda in 1886, which was then connected to Klang itself via a rail bridge, the Connaught Bridge, completed in 1890. 

In the 1890s Selangor's became the State's leading producer of coffee, and subsequently rubber (one Selangor rubber plantation was owned and managed by my Scottish grandfather, Peter McCall, the local Royal Selangor golf champion).

In 1903, the royal capital was moved back to Klang when it became the official seat of Sultan Sulaiman (Sultan Alauddin Sulaiman Shah).

The state of Selangor has the largest economy in Malaysia in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), with 22% of the country's GDP. It is the most developed state in Malaysia, has good infrastructure such as highways and transport, has the largest population in Malaysia, a high standard of living and the lowest poverty rate in the country. Great golf courses and remnant rainforests.

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