Koreatown in the city

Koreatown in the city One Ampang Avenue has become a place where the Koreans in the Klang Valley congregate by Fintan Ng TUCKED AWAY IN a corner of Ampang Jaya on the fringe of the city is a compact community of Koreans. Having been around since the late 1990s, this "Little Korea" is known as One Ampang Avenue, a collection of shopoffices and condominium blocks that has been around for 10 years or more. Little Korea is located off Jalan Ampang, opposite Ampang Point shopping centre and Dataran Palma. As you make the turn off the busy Jalan Ampang into One Ampang Avenue, you would not know that a Korean community exists in the area. After all, there are few signs on those shoplots fronting Jalan Ampang to show the presence of a thriving Korean community. But once you get into the shops located behind, except for the distinctly local architecture, it's as if you have just wandered into one of those ethnic neighbourhoods in large American cities, where everything from grocery stores to houses of worship of that particular community can be found on several streets. And that is exactly what One Ampang Avenue is. A casual observer strolling along the three rows of shopoffices that make up its commercial element would be amazed at the things Korean that one can see. A pasaraya with the unlikely name of Lotte Mart, easily the largest grocery store in the neighbourhood, has part of its wall pasted with notices in Korean. In fact, notices and advertisements in Korean abound in this neighbourhood. Internet caf鳬 restaurants, beauty salons, grocery stores, service companies, bakeries, language and tuition centres as well as a library and resource centre advertising their products or services can also be found here. And yes, there is even a Korean church in the upper level of one of the shopoffices. Apart from two large grocery stores, there were several other such shops stocking goods and foods to cater to the Koreans. On the upper floors can be found companies providing different types of services for the community. If you are into Korean cuisine, there are traditional dishes and the popular Korean BBQ as well as Korean-run outlets selling pizzas and Western dishes. The community seems self-contained and the young Koreans can have a kindergarten of their own to go to. It is understood that many of the Koreans work in the city with multinationals or in the many Korean firms involved in construction, engineering, manufacturing and other industries. Over the course of several days, Propertyplus visited the neighbourhood in the hope of learning why the place has become a focal point for the Korean community in the city. Unfortunately, this writer did not have much luck in convincing people, especially business owners, to talk about the community. Communicating with them was frustrating as many did not speak English and this writer