Discover the city 2

Kuala Lumpur City Gallery is located opposite the green field of Dataran Merdeka, next to Perpustakaan Kuala Lumpur and Restoran Warisan.

When my dad first heard about the word gallery he thought it as a artistic gallery, with abstract or overly-artistic works of local painters... which laymen like us would not understand or appreciate. But that's not the case, it's a gallery that houses the historical and cultural essence of our city Kuala Lumpur.

Admission is free. Open Daily from 8.30am to 6.30pm.

We were welcomed by an adorable sketch of neighbouring landmarks. There are KL tower, KLCC, Sultan Abdul Samad Building, Independence Square, Tun Abdul Razah Heritage Park, Victorian Fountain and KL Gallery.

There are many models and miniatures like this in the gallery. This is a model of Masjid Jamek. Masjid Jamek was built in the early 1900s.

Kuala Lumpur began as tin mines. As time goes by she was developed into a trading hot spot and now, a frontier town of the country.

All civilization in this world have unique stories. You can imagine how our ancestors moved from a remote area, settled down near the river bank, working at tin mines and being ruled by foreign government. 

Revolution is necessary for civilization. When I see old pictures of the old era, I can't help imagining the way people lived then, how they spoke, what they did. 

This is the largest Kuala Lumpur City Model at a scale of 1:1500. It was said to have more than 500 buildings now on the miniature model, and more will be added to complete the full landscape of the city on the model platform of 40ft x 50ft. 

It was so intricately constructed that I think it must be torturing to assembly each little pieces together. Talk about patience and understanding of the city. The designing and constructing team is incredible.

ARCH

At the end of the visit there's the ARCH. The artists convey the heritage and culture of Malaysia through a very special and tough material -- wood! Various sizes of wood were trimmed and carved, then assembled to form various masterpiece ranging from famous landmarks in the world, cultural houses, Baju Kebaya, little key chains to note books.

He is Chai. He's been working for 20 years on wood-carving.

It's impressive to know we have such talented artists working hard to capture the essence and uniqueness of Malaysia, and bring it to the world.

Each colour in this traditional house was made with different types of wood for different colours. In fact there were notes around the house to indicate each type of wood being used. This photo is over-exposed so I can't really see the words, but probably there were around ten types of them.

The roof itself might already consisted of nearly hundreds of little pieces of woods. I mean, WOW.

That's why I can't be an artist. I'll most probably throw away the knife and break the wood into two furiously when I'm sticking the 32nd wood stick.

I'm seriously very proud of Kuala Lumpur. There might be many aspects yet to be improve, but her uniqueness and richness in culture is worth to be told, shared and spread! 

There's much more to explore.  I ♥ KL!