Ampang: Kuala Lumpur's Embassy Row and Korean District

Ampang stretches east of the city centre through a succession of residential and commercial zones that reflect the district's layered development history from early tin mining settlement to diplomatic enclave to the established Korean commercial district that now constitutes one of Malaysia's most interesting cross-cultural urban environments. The concentration of embassies along Jalan Ampang and its surrounding streets — including the British, American, French, German, and dozens of other diplomatic missions — makes this the city's Embassy Row, and the security perimeters, national flags, and the formal architecture of the diplomatic buildings give Jalan Ampang a distinctive international character that begins immediately east of KLCC and extends several kilometres toward the Ampang suburbs.

The Korean community of Ampang, centred around the Ampang Point mall and the streets surrounding it near the Koryo-won Korean restaurant complex, has built one of Malaysia's most established Korean commercial districts. The Korean restaurants, Korean supermarkets, Korean hair salons, and the Korean cultural centre that serve this community represent several decades of Korean settlement in Malaysia — a community that arrived partly through the diplomatic and business connections between the two countries and partly through the Korean wave of cultural influence that has made Malaysian young people enthusiastic consumers of Korean popular culture. The Ampang Point area Korean food concentration, in particular, is considered among the most authentic Korean dining environments in Southeast Asia by Korean residents who judge restaurants against home country standards.

The Ampang Jaya area further east provides the less internationally defined character of a mature Malaysian suburban municipality — the Ampang wet market, the Chinese temple cluster at the historic tin mining settlement, and the recreational facilities of the Taman Cahaya Ampang provide the neighbourhood infrastructure for a mixed population that has maintained a community identity distinct from the city's more rapidly changing inner suburbs. The Ukay Perdana and Bukit Ampang highlands above the district offer the forested hillside that Kuala Lumpur's proximity to genuine tropical jungle enables — the same forest that gives Kuala Lumpur its remarkable biodiversity within and around its metropolitan area.