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Singapore's Chinatown is like no
other. A place where many of our forefathers first made their
homes, where the historic buildings have been lovingly
conserved, where century-old beliefs are still practised, and,
in a manner true to the New Asia -Singapore spirit, where
fashionable new ideas have taken root. The soul of
 Chinatown
runs deep, even as many exciting developments are taking shape.
Chinatown is full of contrasts and fascinating details. Some
parts of Chinatown aren't even Chinese. It includes one of
Singapore's oldest Hindu temples and mosques, built before
Chinatown became dominated by the increasing Chinese immigrant
population. The purpose of this guide is to share with you what
makes Chinatown so special, and help make your visit truly
memorable.
We encourage you to take time to enjoy the real beauty of
Chinatown and to soak in the difference by day and night. This
guide highlights two routes, each of which will take at least
one hour to explore. You can start almost anywhere along the
routes shown in the map overleaf, but we take particular delight
in suggesting that you start your Chinatown tour, quite
paradoxically, at the Hindu temple.
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First, a little history to help you
understand the context. Chinatown's history dates back to
Singapore founding as a trading post in 1819 by Sir Stamford
Raffle. With its strategic location and deep natural habour,
Singapore's status as a free port proved to be a great success
and a magnet for new immigrants seeking their fortunes. The
first junk-load of immigrants arrived at the mouth of the
Singapore River in 1821 from Xiamen, in Fujian province, China.
These pioneers erected the original Thian Hock Keng Temple to
thank the Goddess of the Sea for their safe voyage, and to ask
for continued fortune in their new homeland.
Chinatown became a place which these immigrants called home,
while the nearby Singapore River became a place to find work.
Conditions were harsh, sanitation minimum and gang crime
rampant. The only source of fresh water was from the well at
Spring Street. Each household had to collect fresh water in
bullock-drawn carts, hence Chinatown's local name - Niu Che Shui
(Bullock Cart Water) Many coolie workers from China, filled with
hopes of a glorious and successful future, found themselves
living abject conditions. Opium, their favoured vice, made it
difficult for them to pull themselves out of the poverty pit.
However, with the difficult conditions in China, the lure of a
promised land proved extremely enticing and there was always a
steady flow of new immigrants to Singapore.
Enough
Said about its histories and plans. Now, we invite you to
experience the sights, sounds and smells of Singapore’s
Chinatown.
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A good place to start is at the Sri
Mariamman Temple on South Bridge Road. You will see how
this road was the traditional location for goldsmiths, pawn
shops and Chinese medical halls. Venture inside a medical hall
and allow the learned ladies and gentlemen to find a cure for
whatever ails you.
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Built in 1827 and declared a national monument
in 1973, it is the oldest and most important of Singapore's
Hindu temples. It is dedicated to the goddess Mariamman who is
known for curing extremely serious epidemics such as cholera,
chicken pox and small pox -a hint to what health standards must
have been like at that time. Notice the striking Gopuram or
Pagoda as the British referred to it, which features celebrated
acts of the Hindu deities. According to the priests there, any
visitor who visits the temple must ring the bell to 'inform' the
gods that he is coming into the temple. Likewise, when leaving
the temple, the visitor must ring the bell to ‘inform’ the gods
of his departure.
Once inside, be sure to look up at the elaborate ceiling
paintings. This temple’s most important ceremony is Thimithi, in
honour of the Goddess. During the ceremony, devotees walk over
hot coals in a test of their spirituality.
In addition to Hindus, the temple also draws many Chinese
devotees. Notice the two Chinese style windows on the walls
below the Gopuram. Not found in any other Hindu temples in
Singapore, it is believed that these windows were specially
built for the Chinese to offer their prayers from outside the
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Exit the temple and turn left along
South Bridge Road. Turn left again into Pagoda Street and you
will notice statues of cows (the sacred animal of the Hindus)
sitting along the walls of the temple. Walk down Pagoda Street
and visit one of the many handicraft and antique shops.
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Make a left turn into Trengganu
Street and a right turn into Temple Street. Here you will find a
wide array of souvenirs ranging from silks and laquerware to
exotic remedies and beauty treatments. You might also be able to
spot the groundnut seller at No. 39 and the friendly medical
hall along the way.
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Here, you may wish to take a slight detour to Eu
Tong Sen Street & New Bridge Road, where you’ll find authentic
local coffee shops and shops full of delicious sweet and savoury
tidbits like barbecued cured minced pork. The Garden Bridge
takes you over to the Majestic Theatre which was once a popular
place for Cantonese Opera and was also used as a cinema. This
once grand building has now been gazetted for conservation and
may be turned into a teahouse cum retail space. Yue Hwa, the
large Chinese emporium next door was formerly the Great Southern
Hotel (also known as Nam Tin Hotel), once regarded as the 1950s
by the cultural traditions of mainland China, this 6-level
building offers a wide range of oriental products ranging from
Chinese arts and crafts and traditional furniture to traditional
Chinese medicine, precious jewellery and made-to-measure
garments.
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Double back to Trengganu Street and turn right.
Straight ahead at the corner of Trengganu Street and Smith
Street, stands the remains of the once famed Cantonese opera
house, Lai Chun Yuen. In its heyday, crowds from all over would
flock outside the already packed theatre, straining to hear
their favourite stars sing. It was also the red light district.
And with the opium dens just around the corner
in Pagoda
Street, his part of town was definitely very vibrant and
colourful.
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Today, No.5 Smith Street is home to
the Chinese Theatre Circle. On Tuesdays and Fridays, from 8pm to
8.45pm, a talk cum demo on Chinese opera and performance is
offered at SGD 15 net per person which includes specially brewed
Chinese tea and pastries. Look out too for a traditional Chinese
sauce shop at No.52 Smith Street. Here, you can find all sorts
of Chinese condiments from soy sauce to plum sauce and
vinegar.
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 Continue
down Trengganu Street until you come to a large building-the
Chinatown Complex, and follow the road left. This is Sago Street
where you will find medical halls, a rattan mat weaver, kite and
mask artisans, pasty makers and furniture restorers. The street
was named after the numerous sago (a glutinous tropical crop
used in puddings) factories which used to operate here. This
area was also infamous for its funeral parlours and dark, dingy
death houses. The terminally ill who were without family used to
wait out their last days here.When you reach the end of Sago
Street, look right and you will see an eye-catching colonial
building which used to be the Jinrickshaw Station. These
human-drawn jinrickshaws or carriages were a popular mode of
transport in the 1890s.
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The Chinese believe that whatever is used in this world can be
taken to the next, so paper replicas are often burned at
funerals, to give the deceased a comfortable start on the other
side. Today, these can include paper Mercedes Benz cars, Cock
cans and gold credit cards. Visit some of the colourful stores
that sell these goods along Banda Street.
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From Banda Street, walk up to the
plaza that fronts the Chinatown Complex - an especially vibrant
experience of everyday Singapore. Look out for old folks
catching up on the morning's gossip. Also step back and enjoy in
full perspective, the colourful stretch of restored shop houses
on Sago Street.
In the basement of the Chinatown Complex you'll find what
the locals call a "wet- Stumble upon market" -so called because
of the wet floors and abundance of fresh produce. Explore the
labyrinth and you might even stumble upon stalls selling potent
herbs and exotic meats such as turtles, frogs and snakes. A maze
of small units (or Department Stores, as they call themselves)
selling everything from mahjong tiles and Chinese periodicals to
CDs, computer games, clothes and steelware inhabit the ground
floor. The second floor houses some of Singapore's best eating
stalls that once lined the streets of Chinatown. This place is
often crowded and constantly bustling even up to 9.30pm. The
food is tasty, often spicy and very affordable -an experience
definitely worth savouring.
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Start Route 2 across the Sri
Mariamman temple at Eu Yang Sang one of Singapore' s oldest
medical halls. Opened in Singapore in 1910, the leading producer
and retailer of traditional Chinese medicines is run by the 4th
generation “Eus”. Here, traditional Chinese medicines are
pre-packaged attractively for easy purchase and consumption and
made more accessible to non-Chinese speaking customers with
English translation on the packers.
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Coming out of Eu Yan Sang, turn left
and left again into Ann Siang Hill. Walk up Ann Siang Hill,
which was the traditional site for remittance houses – for the
largely illiterate immigrant population to send money home.
The area around Ann Siang Hill and Club Street is also full
of Clan and Sporting Associations, their walls crammed with
trophies and photographs of old members and founders.
Walk up the entrance of No.14 Ann Siang Road and look at the
floorboards above. You’ll see a boarded up square peephole. In
the past, ladies used to peep through this hole to see who was
at the door.
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I At this juncture, it is possible
to take a detour to TelokAyer Street. This street is highly
recommended for its three n ational
monuments. and you have the option of following the main roads,
or a short cut through some back alleys as shown in the map.
Please take the necessary 'back alley' precautions and avoid
this shortcut at night. Allow a good one hour and a half for
this detour.
For the short cut, follow these instructions: At the end of
Ann Siang Road, find a path to the left of the large building.
Follow this path and go down the stairs. As you come to a
backlane, turn right and follow it as it turns left onto a
narrow road, and then onto Amoy Street. Pop into the Sin Chor
Kung Temple on your right, and then go straight ahead to the
next road, which is Telok Ayer Street. The three monuments and
the Fuk Tak Chi Museum are to the left of this street.
Telok Ayer Street -The magnificent Thian Hock Keng Temple
(currently under restoration with works taking place till 200
I), built between 1839 and 1842, has tiles from Holland and
steel railings from Glasgow. You can also find the Nagore Durgha
Shrine, built between 1828 -1830 for the South Indian Muslims,
and the AI-Abrar Mosque, also known as Indian Mosque, built
between 1850- 1855. Fuk Tak Chi is the first Chinese temple
built in Singapore. The temple has been restored and was
reopened in Aug 1998 as a museum.
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So called because the ground floor would be used as a shop space
while the owners lived on the upper levels. The architecture of
the buildings in this area is known as 'Chinese Baroque' - a
melange of Chinese, Malay and European influences. The Malay
influence can be seen from the detailed wood carvings and the
Pintupagar -cowboy-style swing doors that let in the
breeze but keep out prying eyes. The British colonial influence
is evident in the neo- classical Georgian windows, cornices and
Art Deco designs. The Chinese influence is the most obvious and
colourful of all, of which many elements are symbolic good luck
measures.
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Look out for figurines of protective Gods on the door
lintels, of windows or shelves – to ward off evil spirits by
frightening them with their own reflections. Some old shophouses
have ceramic roofs which end in a series of half moon tiles (for
example, Nos. 4-10A Ann Siang Hill). These are meant to direct
the flow of rainfall, a symbol of prosperity, over the front of
the shophouses which have two grilled vents shaped like a bat.
In Mandarin, bat is “Bian Fu” – a synonym for prosperity. You
can see some examples as you back track to Club Streets, for
example Nos. 90 & 92 Club Street.
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Venture through Club Street, the
next immediate right onto a ‘side’ Club Street. At the top of
the road you will come across a grand Victorian manor entitled,
with vast understatement, the ‘Chinese Weekly Entertainment
Club’ after which Club Street take s
its name. This was founded in 1891 by a Peranakan
millionaire, as a gentlemen’s club for powerful movers
and shakers among the Chinese community. A few of its members
went on to launch some of Singapore's leading banking
corporations. Backtrack to the main Club Street, and enjoy the
view of the luxurious and finely-decorated balconies. Nos. 33
and 35 were designed in 1932 by the renowned architect Frank
Brewer, known for his interesting treatment of exterior plaster
work, and his distinctly modern use of Chinese element. Club
Street is also a good place to return to at night, when the
restaurants and cafes come to life.
Turn left onto Mohamad Ali Lane and make an immediate left
again. Along this lane, you might still find one of the last
traditional idol carvers and a traditional barber still at work.
At the end of the lane, you will see across the main road on
your right, the Jamae Mosque, one of the oldest mosques in
Singapore, built around 1827 by the Chulias -Muslims from South
India's Coromandel Coast. The mosque was declared a national
monument in 1974.
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Singapore has often been dubbed a
food lovers paradise and Chinatown is no exception. You will
find powerful businessmen dining on fine
wine and shark's fin, while a few shops away, an old man savours
a simple bowl of porridge and smokes a filterless cigarette as
if it were a Havana cigar.
With the Chinese being the largest indigenous group in
Singapore, you can be assured of a wide variety of Chinese
dishes. Venture into the many kopitiams or coffees hops to
sample Cantonese, Hakka, Teochew, Hokkien and Hainanese cuisine.
Classic Cantonese dishes include Dian Xin (Dim Sum) -steamed
or fried tidbits -and "Buddha Jumps Over The Wall", a boiled
herbal soup. The Hakkas are famous for their Yong Tau Foo, a
variety of boiled and fried vegetables filled with fish meat and
served with sauces or in soup. Fish Ball Noodles is a specialty
of the Teochews who are also famous for their porridge. The
Hainanese from the island of Hainan have made their culinary
mark in Singapore through the ubiquitous Chicken Rice stalls
found all over the island. The Hokkiens, which make up the
largest Chinese ethnic group in Singapore, are famous for their
noodle dishes like Char Kuay Teow and Hokkien Mee.
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Far East Square -From Fuk Tak Chi,
you may choose to embark on a 10-minute walking trail that
weaves through 22 heritage spots in Far East Square, where
Singapore's earliest immigrants lived and worked.
KretaAyer Road & Keong Saik Road -Where ladies light used to
entertain, now a popular Spot for boutique hotels, herbal tonic
drinks, and cafes with plenty of character.
The URA Gallery -Learn about Singapore's urban development
history at the URA Gallery where the key attraction is a huge
scale model of the city that also sets out its future
development plan. The Gallery is also home to 48 stunning
display, interactive touchscreens and exciting 3-D animations.
It is located at the URA Centre, 4S Maxwell Road, Singapore
069118. Tel: 321 8321. Opening hours: 9am to 4.30pm (Mon to
Fri), 9am to 12.30pm (Sat). Closed on Sun and public holidays.
Hong Lim Park Speakers' Corner -Located in Hong Lim Park, the
Speakers' Corner provides Singaporeans with a venue where they
can speak freely outdoors in public on almost any issue. Drop by
the park between 7am and 7pm daily and watch Singaporeans wax
lyrical on issues close to their hearts
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