USJ offers residents the conveniences of city living in the suburbs

The Sky Park on the roof of One City has a spectacular view of the highway, Main Place, and the rest of Subang Jaya. You can see as far as the office towers in Bandar Sunway on a clear day.

YOU can probably guess how young a person is when they tell you that they have spent most of their life growing up in UEP Subang Jaya (USJ).

This mostly suburban half of Subang Jaya only came about circa 1990s under developer Sime Darby.

Today, we have sections numbering from USJ 1 to USJ 27 with newer areas like USJ Heights and Subang Heights, both gated and guarded communities, on the fringes of Batu Tiga.

The rest of USJ comprises a number of industrial parks with a few thriving business centres that cater to the needs of residents.

The most notable business centre in our half of Subang Jaya is arguably the one occupying USJ 10 and part of USJ 9, fondly known to some as “Taipan Triangle” because of its triangular layout on the map.

While there are small retail outlets and various other services, food-lovers are spoiled for choice when they visit Taipan.

Off the top of my head, eateries that have been around for as long as I can remember are the two hawker centres, the fast food joints, Ampang Homeland Yong Tau Foo restaurant, a Western place called Logenhaus, as well as Victoria Station steakhouse and Mexican restaurant, Las Carretas.

One City shopping mall is located just across the Damansara-Puchong Highway (LDP) from Main Place shopping mall.

But you can find almost anything to eat among the newer shops, from vegetarian food, to Penang specialties, Korean barbeque, banana leaf rice, nasi kandar, chilli pan mee, and some of the spiciest nasi lemak around.

As I was growing up, USJ did not have many shopping centres at first, so my family would often spend time travelling to the older half of Subang Jaya to visit Subang Parade.

The Giant Hypermarket in USJ 1 would be the first hypermarket to be built here, followed by The Summit shopping complex, just across the road.

Both places have aged significantly over the years and Giant was rebuilt only two years ago to compete with its neighbour, Mydin.

The new place was a major improvement from the old one, with the addition of a variety of smaller shops, air-conditioning, and a multistorey carpark.

Summit has definitely seen better days and the mall has been undergoing major renovations for some time now, so I was pleasantly surprised when I paid a visit recently to find that many shops are still operating inside.

Ampang Superbowl in The Summit shopping centre is still busy with activity, especially during the school holidays.

It was a late morning on a weekday when I stopped by, but the bowling alley inside Summit still appears to be popular.

Their other entertainment facilities include the cinema and an old video game arcade, which will undoubtedly see more visitors on the weekends.

While I did see many unoccupied lots within the mall, I was still pleasantly surprised by the things you could find there.

It is a great place to find cheap clothes and I also stumbled across some unique shops, including a costume store and a shop selling billiard accessories.

It was not until much later did other malls start mushrooming across Subang Jaya, including One City in USJ 25, Main Place in USJ 21, and The 19 USJ City Mall in USJ 19.

I remember there being a lot of hype over One City when it was first launched in late 2013, thanks to their rooftop area, the Sky Park.

The athletics track at the Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ) complex in USJ 5 is popular with joggers on a clear day.

Shoppers could walk across the durable glass flooring and see right through to the bottom, so in the first few months of its opening, going to the roof to take pictures was the biggest highlight of going there.

Main Place, on the other hand, was a long abandoned development project that was finally revived and launched early last year, and the presence of several well-known brands consistently draws substantial crowds of shoppers on weekends.

The 19 USJ City Mall does not have as much to offer and is a little quiet, but their shops cater to the residents that live in the apartments there.

As a bustling suburb, USJ only has so much to offer when it comes to recreation.

There are no hills for hiking or lake gardens to be found here, but each area has its own community parks and playgrounds that are in pretty good condition.

Some parks even have facilities like fenced-up open-air futsal courts and skate ramps, and you can occasionally see local youths playing sports like rugby, ultimate frisbee, and dodgeball.

USJ also has a couple of cosy cafes where people can spend the entire afternoon studying, doing work, or just chilling out.

Besides that, the athletics track and football field at the Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ) complex in USJ 5 is another popular spot for joggers when there are no events taking place.

However, there are some popular badminton courts such as Super Courts in the eastern side of USJ where people can play, and they can even choose between traditional parquet flooring or rubber courts.

Public transportation in USJ was limited to buses for the longest time, with the nearest railway station being the Subang Jaya KTM near SS15.

But things have improved vastly ever since the bus rapid transit (BRT) station in USJ 7 was built, and we can only foresee things getting better once the Kelana Jaya LRT Line Extension is up and running, with 10 of the 13 new stations located in Subang Jaya.