Klang, the former Port Swettenham, has gone through the whole cycle: colonial development, modernization accompanying independence, and the discovery of "heritage," in this case the colonial era's.
You have to hunt for old colonial buildings cloistered behind long, leafy driveways, but they exist. Frank Swettenham, the colonial administrator for whom Klang was originally named, would have found this landscape familiar. He himself, it may be recalled, was the subject of a dashing portrait by John Singer Sargent.
Downtown Klang has some colonial-era commercial streets.
Still life.
Meanwhile, highways and post-modern office buildings have sprung up.
Full circle: old buildings renovated rather than torn down.
