Port Dickson is a holiday beach destination at the southern state of Negeri Sembilan in Peninsular Malaysia, about 90km from Kuala Lumpur and 30km from Seremban. Also called 'PD' by locals, this popular seaside retreat is located within easy reach from Kuala Lumpur and Singapore by major highways and roads. From town, a series of warm beaches and calm seas stream along a 10 mile stretch towards Malacca, extending slightly past the cape of Tanjung Tuan. Bagan Pinang, Teluk Kemang and Blue Lagoon attract the most visitors each year, supported by numerous hotels and resorts that offer a wide range of accommodation.

Going back to the nineties, it was a boom time for Port Dickson - its proximity to Kuala Lumpur and easy reach from major cities and Singapore ensured an ever increasing flow of customers. Beachfront hotel and property developent escalated at an alarming rate, buoyed by investor speculation and the large crowds of tourists. Resorts, apartments and condominiums displaced much of the natural surroundings with stunning alacrity, far more than what the landscape could afford. At the height of her popularity, the sparkling beaches were stained with pollution while the clear seas became a turbid mess of brown water.

Appalled by the poor holiday environment, visitor numbers dwindled steadily, culminating with the Asian economic crisis that brought all development to a crashing halt. With the sudden realisation of their cracked honeypot, hotel companies quickly worked with civil authourities to clean up Port Dickson, but it took a good number of years to rehabilitate the beach and sea waters. Today, PD has recovered some of its lustre, and visitors are on the increase again. Still, many properties left unfinished in the late nineties have yet to be completed, their half-completed buildings still resting by the roadside along the coastal stretch.

Port Dickson began history as a small Malay village inhabited by fishermen and traders. It used to be first known as 'Arang', which means coal, a reference to a carbon mine in the area. Around the 1820s, tin ore was discovered in Lukut town about 7km north, leading to an influx of Chinese migrants into the area. In the 1880s during the colonial era, a British official named Sir Frederic Dickson turned Arang into a port for transporting the rich tin ore deposits from Sungai Ujong to Klang. The town was renamed Port Dickson (after the official) and became a busy, railway-linked harbour. After the tin ore trade faded, the town grew into the Port Dickson we know today.

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