FWKLU Website Homepage Banner A _Guests at Chinese temple

FWKLU Website Homepage Banner B _BSAS, Chinese temple

FWKLU Website Homepage Banner C _Raja, Fountain,Textile

FWKLU Website Homepage Banner D _Church, Petaling Street

FWKLU Website Homepage Banner E _Egg Tarts, Flowers

FWKLU Website Homepage Banner F_ Bun maker Chinatown

FWKLU Website Homepage Banner G_ Kid at noodle maker

Our tip-based walking tours are held every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

Put on your comfy shoes and join our tip-based heritage walks in the old quarters of Kuala Lumpur.
Take in the city’s charming sights and hear fascinating stories from your friendly tour guides.

Engage with the city’s living heritage and see many instagrammable spots!

Our tip-based walking tours of Kuala Lumpur are the mainstay of our privately sponsored initiative ‘Keeping Kuala Lumpur’s Heritage Alive’, which will run until December 2025.

Put on your comfy shoes and join our tip-based heritage walks in the old quarters of Kuala Lumpur.
Take in the city’s charming sights and hear fascinating stories from your friendly tour guides.

Engage with the city’s living heritage and see many instagrammable spots!

Our tip-based walking tours of Kuala Lumpur are the mainstay of our privately sponsored
initiative ‘Keeping Kuala Lumpur’s Heritage Alive’, which will run until December 2025.

WALKING TOURS

East-West Connection Walk

Chinatown Cultural Walk

East-West Connection Walk

Chinatown Cultural Walk

Selamat datang!
Welcome to historic Kuala Lumpur

ABOUT US

We are a dedicated team of licensed tourist guides led by the award-winning Jane Rai (recipient of the Kuala Lumpur Mayor’s Tourism Award 2014). She started walking tours in Kuala Lumpur since 1993 with over two decades of experience and so are the rest of the tourist guides in our team.

Every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday morning, we guide visitors and locals through the quaint streets, lanes and back alleys of Kuala Lumpur. We bring the memory of these places to life with stories of how and why people migrated to the city and tales about past heroes, villains, forgotten pioneers, historic architecture and much more.

Share our passion for Kuala Lumpur’s heritage.

We are passionate about preserving the memory of our city’s heritage and have conducted heritage walks for Kuala Lumpur City Hall and Tourism Selangor.

We look forward to you joining us on these tours and help us to keep the heritage of Kuala Lumpur alive.

MEET YOUR FRIENDLY GUIDES

OUR WALKS

Are interactive, educational, and family-friendly fun.

Aim to capture the charm of an area by exploring more than just visible features or landmarks.

Take you through notable old areas of Kuala Lumpur that offer an intimate experience of a multicultural and diverse city.

Allow you to discover the authentic face of old Kuala Lumpur and unlock the many tales the city has to tell about Kuala Lumpur’s past and present, its people and their legacies.

Are presented in a unique fashion and are tailored to each story and setting.

Give our guides the opportunity to provide accurate information and the chance to share practical advice such as where to find affordable cafes, restaurants, and bars and how to use Kuala Lumpur’s public transport.

WHY WALK WITH US?

This is an ideal activity if you want to really experience the soul of Kuala Lumpur; see what makes the city unique and special. You’ll be hearing stories told by guides who live and work in the heart of Kuala Lumpur.

The city at its most authentic
See the unvarnished face of Kuala Lumpur, feel the passion that went into the architecture of the heritage buildings, experience the human emotions that drove the city’s foundations.

Our walks are unscripted
We don’t walk you through a presentation. We invite you to have a conversation about our city. Indulge your curiosity and ask questions about anything that sparks your interest during the walk.

Connecting people
We encourage you to mix and mingle with other curious souls during the walks. You’ll be surprised by your encounters. Savour the unique diversity of language, culture, and background of the people in your group.

Listen to the city’s heartbeat
You’ll be exploring historic sites such as houses of worship, pre-war buildings, other places of interest and getting to know the people who lives and work in the old districts of Kuala Lumpur.

Support local communities
You’ll hear about the daily lives of members of the local communities. Please help us support independent small traders, artisans and local hotel owners whom you meet along your walk.

A healthy, family-friendly activity
We created a walking tour so that we would be a tourism activity that leaves no carbon footprint. All activities during the walk are eco-friendly too.

“We want visitors to Kuala Lumpur to experience our passion for preserving the heritage of this city. We want to show them that Kuala Lumpur is a fascinating city and our way of doing it; is to stroll around with them, tell them our stories and support small traditional traders.”

Jane Rai

Founder of Free Walk Kuala Lumpur Unscripted
Award-winning Tourist Guide
Certified Muslim Friendly Tourist Guide
Speaker | Content Writer | Trainer

testimonials

What Others Have Said About Our Walks

We did a very enjoyable and informative East-West Connection walk of the historical, cultural and architectural formation of Kuala Lumpur with our guide Jane Rai on the 7 January 2024. Read More

Embarking on a walking tour of Chinatown in Kuala Lumpur with Jane Rai was an extraordinary expedition through time, culture, and personal narratives that left an indelible mark on our exploration of this vibrant district.
Read More

Our journey commenced at the tea room of Four Points by Sheraton Kuala Lumpur a fitting starting point for an adventure curated by Jane, recommended by a friend whose encounter with her in Malaysia over a decade ago still resonated. Jane’s warm welcome set the tone, as she skilfully learned each participant’s name, origin, and introduced us, fostering an immediate sense of camaraderie among our diverse group.

Our group included a spectrum of ages, from a spirited 6-year-old to teens and individuals in their fifties, half being foreign visitors and the rest natives and expatriates living in Kuala Lumpur. Jane’s skilfulness in curating the tour ensured that every participant found resonance in our exploration of Chinatown, tailoring the experience to cater to our varied interests and backgrounds.

What made this journey truly exceptional was Jane’s intimate connection to the district, having grown up amidst its bustling streets. Jane’s vivid accounts and first hand experiences gave context to the changes Chinatown underwent, lending depth and authenticity to the historical tapestry she painted for us.

Jane’s adept storytelling delved into the influences of the British, Indian, Chinese, and Malay cultures that shaped Chinatown. Her visual presentations juxtaposing the town’s past and present vividly depicted its growth. It intricately wove the tales of remarkable individuals within Chinatown, introducing us first hand to the inspiring narratives of the noodle maker and specialty tea shop owner.

Through Jane’s thoughtful curation, we had the privilege of meeting these custodians of tradition. The noodle maker and tea shop owner graciously shared their stories, offering intimate glimpses into their journeys that led them to forgo corporate comforts in favour of upholding their family legacies.

The tour concluded with a playful yet engaging quiz, a testament to Jane’s ability to captivate minds across generations. Her delightful tokens for correct answers added an extra layer of joy to an already enriching experience.
I wholeheartedly recommend her tour for anyone seeking a culturally immersive and emotionally resonant experience in this vibrant district.

The Chinatown Cultural Walk isn’t your typical tourist tour. Jane Rai began the tour with sharing about the history and development of the Chinatown area. Like many other cities ours started with tin mining activities, trade, settlements Read More

The Chinatown Cultural Walk was a blast, even for a local. We get the actual opportunity to see what we locals take for granted behind every sight and sound that passes us everyday . Read More

“Having interest in history and culture, I was very keen to join the East-west Connection walking tour during my visit to Kuala Lumpur in October 2022. And the walk lived up to every expectation and more. The organization of the walk was perfect and the pace comfortable.
Read More

For a long time, I knew of Chinatown in Kuala Lumpur for its knockoffs of luxury goods and haggling being the norm. The epicentre being a long undercover Petaling Street full of tourist stuff for sale such as fake designer watches, fake Read More

designer bags, jewellery, shoes, belts, hats, toys, mobile phone cases and anything else the locals think a visitor to Malaysia might want to buy. However, Kooshal and I discovered that there is a proper authentic working class Chinatown. It has all the required features that make these towns tick. Colourful, vibrant, lively, busy, noisy, crowded, exotic smells, herbs and medicine shops, temples, dragons, sculptures, restaurants, bars, street food stalls and budget hotels.

On Saturday morning, Chetna being away in Ipoh with her friends for the weekend, Kooshal and I decided to join Jane Rai on a Chinatown Cultural Walk. Jane has always been drawn to the human aspect of heritage — how a space makes people feel and affects interaction.

The Chinatown walk is split into three parts, making it easy to navigate. First is the features section, which talks about places such as REXKL, as well as some cafes like Mingle Cafe.

The second part is the food highlights, all those old-timer food stalls and hawkers.
The third are the historical landmarks — from Victoria Institution, a school that dates back over 100 years to the many places of worship such as the Sin Sze Si Ya Temple, which was built by the famous Kapitan Cina, Yap Ah Loy. The famed Gurdwara Sahib Polis, built in 1898 to cater for Sikh police officers, while the bungalow-like space housing Kafei Dian on Jalan Panggong was once a post office, built in 1911 and the oldest Hindu temples in the city, the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple. Founded in 1873, it was built as a private family shrine by K Thamboosamy Pillai, who is a major name in KL’s history. These landmarks are crucial in KL’s history.
Thanks to Jane Rai, amongst other things we discovered;

1. How Chinatown is referred to as ’Chee Cheong Kai’ (Starch Factory Street).

2. The difference between a shophouse and a townhouse.

3. How a younger generation of businesses began populating the shoplots again with hipster cafés and more approachable wares.

4. That Yap Ah Loy was instrumental in the growth of KL because he helped rebuild it after the fire to the point that it has become what it is today.

5. How Kampung Pandan got its name.

6. Which Chinese Tea suits Malaysian palette best.

7.The system the British used to police the people.

8.The system the British and the Dutch used to tax.

9. The story of the Madras Theatre and Muttiah Chetty Lane.

10. The chocolate story.

We ended our tour at the iconic Kean Guan Tea Merchant Shop with Kian Chuan aka KC who is the third-generation business owner looking after his family’s tea shop established in 1945. And we had lunch at the Hungry Tapir, a vegan restaurant with a full serviced bar!
While Chinatown is still the go-to place for knock-off designer goods, it is also where one will find the best food stalls that have been run by generations of restaurateurs and cooks.
But the history behind the people and places and how they started is all very interesting — like how they moved from one place to another and how long ago they began.
We experienced the human element and saw Chinatown as a place of new beginnings. Nostalgic charm with all the modern amenities- that is what Chinatown has come to be. The charm will never fade.

“I had the pleasure of going on a walking tour recently around what used to be called the Old Market Square in KL. We went back to the 19th century when KL was going through significant commercial developments. Read More

“Nostalgic moments came sweeping over me as I stepped into Medan Pasar, standing next to the clock tower that was erected in 1937 to commemorate the coronation of King George VI. Read More

“A walk down streets of history where east meets west. Imagining the cacophony of sound of traders, silversmiths and livestock at the confluence of Sg Kelang & Sg Gombak in the late 1800s.
Read More