CITY SKETCHING: Jalan Ampang

The AIA Building of today. 

Raintrees used to dot the entire of Jalan Ampang but today, not many are left.
These four magnificent trees are not the original inhabitants along
the riverside. They have been planted in the 1980s or 90s, if I am not mistaken.

I spotted a lone street sweeper along the road opposite the AIA Building
and decided to capture it in a sketch.

Jalan Ampang is an old street in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, stretching right from Jalan Tun Razak in the north to Lebuh Ampang in the south. In the 70s, Jalan Ampang was thrown into the limelight because of the hostage-taking drama in the AIA Building by the Japanese Red Army. On Aug 4 1975, a group of the JRA stormed the AIA building which housed the Swedish and American embassies and took 53 employees of the embassies hostage. I decided to sketch this area from the side of the road just after the Chinese New Year period when the traffic is less busy.  In the 70s and 80s, there were no tall buildings in this area except the AIA Building. Today, there are several tall buildings in this stretch, offering shelter from the sun for a good part of the day.