Royal Selangor Visitor Centre

Royal Selangor was founded in 1885 by Yong Koon, a Chinese pewtersmith who came to Kuala Lumpur when tin was the whole economy, and the firm is now the largest pewter manufacturer in the world - which is why a factory tour ends up on itineraries. The visitor centre runs free guided tours through the history, the alloy, and the working floor, where you watch casting, filing, polishing and hand-hammering being done. There is a two-hundred-and-sixty kilogram tankard in the Guinness book, a gallery of pieces, and a shop. The part most people enjoy is the School of Hard Knocks, a paid half-hour workshop where you beat a sheet of pewter into a small bowl over a mould with a hammer and take it home; the Foundry session lets you cast an accessory instead.

What you actually see

• The working factory floor - casting, filing, polishing and hand-hammering.
• The School of Hard Knocks - hammering your own pewter bowl to take away.
• A record-sized tankard - the 260-kilogram piece in the entrance gallery.
• The 1885 story - the tin-boom origins of the firm in Kuala Lumpur.

When to go

All year; weekdays when the production floor is running. Two hours.

Honest expectations

The factory floor is quiet at weekends and on holidays - go on a weekday to see work happening. Workshops must be booked and fill up. The tour ends in the shop, inevitably.

Nearby

Setapak is outside the centre; central Kuala Lumpur is a short drive south.