Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur
Bintang Walk is the branded name for Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur's shopping and entertainment spine, named after a 50 metre hill that once stood near the vanished village of Kampung Dollah. Chinese traders had set up shops along the road by the late 19th century, serving the city's tin mining economy, and by the 1930s an amusement ground on today's Sungei Wang Plaza site had grown into the Shaw Organisation's Bukit Bintang Amusement Park, or BB Park, before closing in the early 1970s. In the late 1980s, developer Tan Sri Yeoh Tiong Lay rebuilt the strip through YTL Corporation in roughly six months and coined the name Bintang Walk, likening it to the Champs-Elysees. Pavilion Kuala Lumpur opened in 2007 on the site of the old Bukit Bintang Girls' School, and the street's newest chapter is the RM4 million 'I Lite U' lighting and gantry project, launched 3 January 2026 to open Visit Malaysia Year 2026.
Jalan Bukit Bintang
official Malay road name, in use since the road's naming after the Bukit Bintang hill
Bintang Walk
English branded name introduced by Tan Sri Yeoh Tiong Lay and YTL Corporation, late 1980s onward
BB
colloquial local shorthand, in common use since at least the 1970s-80s
Late 19th century
Chinese traders establish shops along the road as Kuala Lumpur grows as a tin mining settlement; the road is named after a nearby 50 metre hill, Bukit Bintang, close to the now-vanished village of Kampung Dollah.
1930s
An amusement ground, remembered locally as Hollywood Park, opens on the outskirts of town at what is now the Sungei Wang Plaza site.
1947
The Shaw Organisation, the Hong Kong-based film and entertainment company, acquires and expands the ground into the Bukit Bintang Amusement Park, known as BB Park, with cabarets, dance halls, a boxing ring, stage shows and one of the area's early cinemas.
1957
The Federal Hotel opens on Jalan Bukit Bintang timed to coincide with Malaya's independence, featuring the country's first revolving restaurant.
1958-2002
The single-screen Cathay Cinema operates on Jalan Bukit Bintang from 1958, closes in 1997, and is demolished in 2002; the Bukit Bintang MRT station later rises on the site.
Early 1970s
BB Park closes as radio and television draw audiences away from live cabaret and stage entertainment.
1977
Sungei Wang Plaza opens in January on the former BB Park site, becoming Kuala Lumpur's second shopping centre after Ampang Park, complete with an ice rink and one of the country's first multiplex-style cinemas.
Late 1980s-1990
Tan Sri Yeoh Tiong Lay proposes rejuvenating the strip, and YTL Corporation redevelops it with terracotta paving, granite kerbs and street trees in about six months, branding it Bintang Walk; the Lot 10 shopping centre, built as Malaysia's answer to Harrods, opens in 1990.
2005
Starhill Centre, a struggling department-store mall acquired by YTL in 1999, reopens on 30 July as Starhill Gallery, a luxury retail concept designed by architect David Rockwell; it is renamed The Starhill in 2020 after a further renovation.
2007
Pavilion Kuala Lumpur opens on 20 September on the former site of Bukit Bintang Girls' School, Kuala Lumpur's oldest school, which had relocated to Cheras in 2000.
2015-2017
BB Plaza, built in 1979, closes in March 2015 and is later demolished for a RM3 billion mixed retail-residential redevelopment; the Bukit Bintang MRT station opens on 17 July 2017 on the former Cathay Cinema site.
January 2026
DBKL and the Housing and Local Government Ministry complete the RM4 million 'I Lite U @ Bukit Bintang' project, a permanent lit gantry and decorative lighting along a 1 kilometre stretch, launched on 3 January 2026 by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim as the opening event of Visit Malaysia Year 2026.
The Bintang Walk streetscape
The terracotta paving, granite kerbs, palms and warm street lighting along the original 250 metre stretch were installed by YTL Corporation in about six months in the early 1990s, part of Yeoh Tiong Lay's rebranding of the strip from Jalan Bukit Bintang into Bintang Walk.
Federal Hotel's revolving restaurant
Built in 1957 to coincide with independence, the Federal Hotel housed the country's first revolving restaurant, a mechanically rotating dining floor that was a novelty attraction in the young capital.
Bukit Bintang MRT station's site
The underground Bukit Bintang MRT station, opened 17 July 2017, sits on the footprint of the old single-screen Cathay Cinema, which operated from 1958 until its 1997 closure and 2002 demolition.
The Starhill's reinvention
Opened in 1996 as the mass-market Starhill Centre anchored by Tangs department store, the mall struggled until YTL bought it in 1999 and had designer David Rockwell rework it into the luxury-focused Starhill Gallery, reopened in 2005 and renamed The Starhill in 2020.
Pavilion KL's school-site origins
Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, opened 20 September 2007, stands on the site of Bukit Bintang Girls' School, the city's oldest school, which was relocated to Cheras as Sekolah Seri Bintang Utara in 2000, a heritage trade-off that drew criticism at the time.
The I Lite U gantry
The permanent welcome arch erected under the 2025-2026 'I Lite U @ Bukit Bintang' project changes its decor with the calendar, Chinese lanterns for Chinese New Year, pelita oil lamps for Hari Raya, oil lamps for Deepavali and festive lights for Christmas, marking the start of a 1 kilometre lit corridor.
The name comes from Bukit Bintang, a hill about 50 metres high that once stood near Kampung Dollah, a Malay village that no longer exists. The hill itself has since been built over, but its name stayed with the road that ran past it.
Developer Tan Sri Yeoh Tiong Lay proposed rejuvenating the strip in the late 1980s, and his company YTL Corporation rebuilt it in about six months, branding the result Bintang Walk and comparing its ambition to the Champs-Elysees in Paris.
Before Sungei Wang Plaza and Lot 10, the area held Chinese-run shops serving Kuala Lumpur's 19th century tin mining trade, the Capitol Hotel built in 1948, and BB Park, a Shaw Organisation amusement ground with cabarets and a boxing ring that closed in the early 1970s.
The single-screen Cathay Cinema opened on Jalan Bukit Bintang in 1958, closed in 1997, and was torn down in 2002. The Bukit Bintang MRT station, opened on 17 July 2017, now occupies the same site.
Yes. Through the 1980s and 1990s, the Bukit Bintang area, including Changkat Bukit Bintang, struggled with prostitution and human trafficking, prompting authorities to designate it a targeted enforcement zone before the district's later shift toward mainstream retail and dining.
BB Park, formally the Bukit Bintang Amusement Park, was an entertainment ground built in the 1930s and later expanded by the Shaw Organisation with cabarets, dance halls and a boxing ring. It stood on what is now the Sungei Wang Plaza site until closing in the early 1970s.
Pavilion Kuala Lumpur opened on 20 September 2007 on the former site of Bukit Bintang Girls' School, Kuala Lumpur's oldest school, which moved to Cheras in 2000 to become Sekolah Seri Bintang Utara.
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