Petaling Jaya is a mature and dignified neighbourhood that encompasses approximately 97.2 square kilometres, and is divided into many sections. Founded in 1954 as Malaysia's first planned township, it was granted its "city-ship" status on 20 June 2006. Its location is highly central as it is only 16.5 km to Kuala Lumpur, 7 km to Taman Tun Dr. Ismail, 13 km to Mont Kiara and 11 km to Bangsar. Most of the houses in Petaling Jaya predate Independence Day, hence, the houses are mainly bungalows in various designs. Although renovations have been made in the the course of time, most of the houses still retain their own individual characteristics. In spite of half of Petaling Jaya being leasehold land, the houses here still range in the millions. Petaling Jaya is a self sustained neighbourhood with its own range of lower end shopping malls such as Amcorp Mall and SS2 Mall, and higher end malls such as Tropicana City Mall, Jaya One, One Utama and Jaya 33. PJ New Town or otherwise fondly referred to by the locals as PJ State, carries the full range of local and international banks with the only exception being Citibank, which can only be found in Damansara and Kuala Lumpur. Eateries of all localities are abundant; and some of the shops are even famous enough to be talked about in the newspapers and online. There are a number of outstanding local schools in Petaling Jaya such as the SK Assunta and SMK Assunta, primary and secondary convent schools; and SJK Bukit Bintang and SMK Bukit Bintang, the local boys only school. The local healthcare centres are Assunta Hospital and University Hospital and the local higher institution of education is Universiti Malaya, Center for Foundation Studies International Islamic University (CFS IIUM) and Tunku Abdul Rahman University (UTAR). Places of worship for all races are aplenty in Petaling Jaya, and morning wet markets are also available in SS2 and Section 14. Petaling Jaya is well located and is highly accessible by almost all the highways, namely the Federal Highway, the Lebuhraya Damansara-Puchong (LDP), New Klang Valley Expressway (NKVE) and the SPRINT highway. The buses that serves this area are numerous, and catching a bus to a certain area is highly dependent on which of the many bus stops you go to. There are a few Putra LRT stops in Petaling Jaya, with the most used ones being the Taman Jaya and Asia Jaya stations.
