Photos

23 JANUARY 2003, PAUL STREET, SEREMBAN

With the growing expanse of the suburbs as a result of Malaysia's push towards greater urban expansion along the peninsula, many of the old colonial towns are dying at the centre.

Here, this run down strip of Chinese shophouses, once the economic backbone of city life, lie mostly dormant and closed-- too expensive to restore.

What is stifling inner city survival is the apparent lack of interest of modern buyers looking to establish retail in the older quarters-- opting for the modern structures at the cities' peripherals. Those that are still open are establishments that have been run by the same family for much of the 20th Century.

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Canon S30, ISO100