Cental Market

If you want to go shopping for souvenirs please visit to the central market; a Malaysian friend suggested me. So that afternoon we went there for a little shopping to buy souvenirs for families and friends.

Central Market is located at Jalan Hang Kasturi, a few minutes away from Petaling Street. It was founded in 1888 and originally used as a wet market, while the current building was completed in 1937. It has since been classified as a Heritage Site by the Malaysian Heritage Society and it is now a landmark for Malaysian culture and heritage. It is also strategically located within public transport facilities.

Central Market has created a corner to display multi-ethnicity and the stalls are zoned based on the features of each race. The new zone therefore would consist of 3 lanes namely the Lorong Melayu, Straits Chinese and Lorong India. The purpose of this new zone is to let the visitors have an insight of the cultural difference of the various races in Malaysia.

There is also a Malacca Jonker street – a street featuring double-storey and single-storey Baba-Nyonya styled architectural buildings, a Batik Emporium which houses well-known designer labels with the best Malaysian made batik items ranging from clothes, shoes, bags to home finishing.

Central Market is a one stop shopping centre for Malaysian products such as handicrafts, art, kebaya, songket, batik and the wide variety of Malaysian cuisine. Efforts to improvise and upgrade facilities in Central Market also include having a variety of food & beverage outlets such as Secret Recipe, Old Town Kopitiam, Kings Confectionary, Famous Amos, Precious Restaurant (Traditional Baba Nyonya Cuisine), Ginger Restaurant (Traditional Malaysian Thai Cuisine) and many more.

The colourful Malaysian Traditional Cultural and Arts events are presented at the Central Market Outdoor Stage. Central Market celebrates all the Traditional Festivals of each race in Malaysia. Moreover, Central Market supports the local contemporary arts in The Annexe Gallery.

We bought some souvenirs, walked along the street and looked around just for window shopping.