Kelapa Sawit is a small town located along Jalan Kulai-Air Hitam Malaysian Federal Roads System route 1 in

Kulai District The Kulai District is a district in the state of Johor, Malaysia. Its district capital is Kulai Town. It covers Kulai Town, Ayer Bemban, Bandar Putra Kulai, Bukit Batu, Indahpura, Bandar Baru Kangkar Pulai, Kelapa Sawit, Saleng, Sedenak, ...

Johor Johor (; ), also spelled as Johore, is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia in the south of the Malay Peninsula. Johor has land borders with the Malaysian states of Pahang to the north and Malacca and Negeri Sembilan ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. Kelapa Sawit means

oil palm ''Elaeis'' () is a genus of palms containing two species, called oil palms. They are used in commercial agriculture in the production of palm oil. The African oil palm ''Elaeis guineensis'' (the species name ''guineensis'' referring to its co ...

Bahasa Malaysia Malaysian Malay ( ms, Bahasa Melayu Malaysia), also known as Standard Malay (Malay: ''Bahasa Melayu Standard''), ( English translation: Malaysian language), or simply Malay, is a standardized form of the Malay language used in Malaysia (as o ...

. A mainly Hakka community which was formed back in the 1950s when the British; who were the colonial masters of Malaya moved tens of thousands of the ethnic Chinese people into New Towns like this during the

Malayan Emergency The Malayan Emergency, also known as the Anti–British National Liberation War was a guerrilla war fought in British Malaya between communist pro-independence fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) and the military forces o ...

. Many of the older generations still keep up with tradition and communicate using the Hakka dialect. Located next to the

Sime Darby Sime Darby Berhad () is a Malaysian trading conglomerate. Its core businesses operate and serve in the industrial, motors and logistics sectors as well as the healthcare, and insurance segments. Background The modern Sime Darby Berhad corpor ...

palm oil Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 33% of global oils produced from ...

plantation, this was the origin of the town's name. It faced some problems of air pollution until the estate's oil palm mill was closed down. Villagers were mainly reliant on agriculture for a living. Before tax on

pepper Pepper or peppers may refer to: Food and spice * Piperaceae or the pepper family, a large family of flowering plant ** Black pepper * ''Capsicum'' or pepper, a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae ** Bell pepper ** Chili ...

kicked in in the 1980s, Kelapa Sawit was the famous Pepper producing town. Farmers has since relied on other crops such as Palm Oil, Durian and other leafy vegetables mainly targeted at the Singapore market. In recent years this town has transformed itself from a sleepy town into a tourist destination with murals, creative art works and traditional hakka food as their selling point. Many tourists mainly from nearby

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

visit Kelapa Sawit as a quick weekend getaway.

Schools

Schools in Kelapa Sawit town include Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (C) Sawit, Sekolah Agama Batu 26, and SK Polis Kem. SJK(C) Sawit was formed when 8 schools from nearby towns were relocated and merged during the emergency period.

Transportation

The only public bus service which serves Kelapa Sawit is the City Bus (Formerly known as South Johore Omnibus) service number 2 from

Larkin Sentral The Larkin Sentral (Jawi: لرکين سينترل) (formerly Larkin Bus and Taxi Terminal) is a bus terminal located in Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia. It has direct bus services to and from many cities and towns in Peninsular Malaysia, Singapor ...

to the town of

Air Hitam Ayer Hitam, nicknamed ''Bandar Seramik'' ('Ceramic Town'), is a town in Batu Pahat District, Johor, Malaysia. Located just at the junction of Malaysia Federal Route 1, Federal Route and Malaysia Federal Route 50, Federal Route , it is known fo ...

. Kulai District {{Johor-geo-stub