Singapore's Chinatown is the traditional Chinese quarters of town, and while the entire city is largely Chinese these days the area does retain some of its own charm. The area is also known as Niu Che Shui (牛车水) in Chinese long term travel insurance and Kreta Ayer in Malay, both names meaning "bullock cart water", a reference to the carts that used to haul in drinking water.
The area between Pagoda Street and Smith Street long term travel insurance has been tarted up considerably for tourists, but workaday Chinatown continues long term travel insurance south and east, merging seamlessly into the Central Business District. Tanjong Pagar is the unofficial home of Singapore's gay community , with many watering holes in restored shophouses, while Club Street long term travel insurance caters more to the expat and yuppie crowd with small, intimate eateries offering excellent (if pricy) Western fare.
Exit A (Pagoda Street) of North-East MRT line's Chinatown station will deposit long term travel insurance you right in the heart of the action. Outram Park, Tanjong Pagar and Raffles Place are also all within walking distance, as is Clarke Quay and the Singapore River to the north.
Chinatown's primary attraction is the town itself, composed as it is of restored long term travel insurance shophouses full of strange little shops selling everything from plastic Buddhas to dried seahorses. Wander at random and see what you can find!
Buddha Tooth Relic Temple , 288 South Bridge Rd , [1] . 9 AM-6:30 PM . Towering above southern Chinatown, this four-story temple was completed only in 2007. The imposing main hall hosts a 27-foot statue of Maitreya Buddha, and the sacred long term travel insurance relic itself, reputedly one of Buddha Shakyamuni's teeth, can be found on the fourth floor (visible only during daily ceremonies at 9-11 AM, 2-3:30 PM, 6:30-8 PM). On the roof is the 10,000 Buddhas Pagoda, hosting a large Tibetan-style prayer wheel. Free . edit
Chinatown Heritage Centre , 48 Pagoda St , [2] . 9 AM-8 PM daily . An excellent museum chronicling how Chinatown came to be and the privation suffered by early migrants. The centre is on the left if you walk straight from the Pagoda St exit of Chinatown MRT station. $10.00/6.00 adult/child . edit
Pinnacle@Duxton Skybridge , 1G Cantonment Rd ( 10 min from Outram Park MRT ), [3] . Daily 9 AM-10 PM . Singapore's long term travel insurance tallest public housing project has a 50th story viewing long term travel insurance deck that offers some of the best city views around at a fraction of the cost of the Singapore Flyer. $5, but payment must be made by ez-link card; enter via Block 1G, Level 1 (next to bus stop). edit
Red Dot Design long term travel insurance Museum , 28 Maxwell long term travel insurance Road , [4] . Fri-Tue 11 AM-6 PM, Wed-Thu closed . Formerly the traffic police HQ, now a design long term travel insurance center painted firehouse red with a museum devoted to contemporary design. $8/4 adult/child or student . edit
Singapore Coin and Notes Museum long term travel insurance , 2 Trengganu Street, Level 3 ( Enter via Pagoda St, across from the Chinatown Heritage Centre ), ☎ 6222 2486 , [5] . 10am-8pm daily . Tiny little museum tucked away across the Chinatown Heritage Centre; the entrance is well-hidden, long term travel insurance but generally marked out by nondescript display cases. Managed by the Singapore Mint, it features local currency, commerative coins, a history of coinage, and the coin-making process. Not exactly a must-see, but a nice little distraction if you're in the area. $10/$6 adult/child . edit
Sri Mariamman Temple , 244 South Bridge Rd . Singapore's oldest and most important Hindu temple long term travel insurance and worth a visit for the intricately carved gopuram (statuary above the entrance), which gave adjacent "Pagoda Street" its name. This is an active long term travel insurance temple, so take off your shoes and don't disturb long term travel insurance the worshippers. The Thimithi fire-walking festival is held here one week before Deepavali, long term travel insurance usually Oct/Nov. Free, but photo/video permit $3/6 . edit
Thian Hock Keng Temple , 158 Telok Ayer St , ☎ +65-64234616 long term travel insurance . The oldest Hokkien temple in Singapore, dating back to 1821, although the structure was thoroughly long term travel insurance refurbished in 2000. The brightly colored, elaborate facade was constructed with ironwork from Scotland, tiles from England and the Netherlands, and dragon-ornamented granite pillars from China. Free . edit Chinatown is at its busiest and most colorful in the month preceding the Chinese New Year (Jan-Feb), when the streets are decked with festive decorations. Street markets are thronged with people, shows entertain the crowds and the drums of lion dances echo into the night. The festivities in a midnight countdown and a roar of firecrackers atop People's Park Complex, showering flaming confetti down below (steer clear!) and for the two following days virtually everything is closed.
Singapore City Gallery ( URA Gallery ), 45 Maxwell Road ( opposite Maxwell Food Centre along South Bridge Road ), ☎ +65 63218321 , [6] . Mon-Sat 0900-1700 . 3-storey visitor gallery with large scaled models of the entire country (ground floor) as well as the city centre (incredibly life-like), which provide good orientation of the country for first-timers. The gallery tells the history of Singapore's urban planning, various planning, design, and conservation strategies adopted to create a good living environment, sustainable development, and many others. Learn the story of Singapore's transformation from 3rd to 1st world, play games on land planning, and the expanse of land reclamation done on the island country. There are also wonderful images of old-new Singapore to browse, free walking maps to unique districts like Joo Chiat to pick up. It is situated within an office building. Just walk in and take the escalator up to 2nd floor for permanent exhibits. Free . edit
Baba House , 157 Neil Road , [7] . By appointment . Located at the fringes of Chinatown among a row of shophouses, the Baba House is a showcase of Peranakan culture in Singapore and features traditional furnishings typical of Straits Chinese households. The house has a distinctive blue exterior and can be visited by appointment only. Free . edit
Rustic Nirvana , 25 Cantonment Road ( Outram Park MRT, exit H ), ☎ +65-62279193 , [8] . Balinese-style spa with over 80 face and body treatment options, including the inimitably long term travel insurance named Kung Fu Bouncing Herbs. Ladies only. edit
Toy Factory Theatre Ensemble , [9] . A theater group that constantly pushes the limits of free expression in Singapore. Performances at the Attic (21 Tanjong Pagar Rd, 4F) and the Theatrette (17A Smith St). edit
Spahaven , 45-46 Amoy St , ☎ +65 62212203 , [11] . Mon-Sat 11 AM-9 PM . Spread over 3,500 sq ft in a charmingly restored shophouse, this day spa offers hair removal (IPL/AFT) for women and men, waxing and skin treatments, with jazz and bossanova playing long term travel insurance in the background. edit
Bath Culture Foot Therapy ( Bath Culture long term travel insurance ), 59 Temple Street Chinatown , ☎ 62266289 , [13] . 12 noon - 12 midnight . A massage parlor focused on foot massages. Uses traditional techniques and herbal remedies with natural ingredients and plays oriental music during the massage. edit
The central streets of Chinatown around the pagoda are packed with stalls selling all sorts of Chinese trinkets aimed squarely at tourists. There is also a cluster of (expensive) antique shops on South Bridge Rd. For Chinese handicrafts, antiques, fashion items, home accessories and Chinese medicine aimed more at the locals, long term travel insurance poke into any of the numerous shopping malls.
long term travel insurance Chinatown is made up of pre-war shophouses, home to merchants who have been hawking the same wares for years – bales of fine silk, traditional handicrafts, and gold and jade jewellery. At the junction of Eu Tong Sen Street and Upper Cross Street, a large Chinese emporium long term travel insurance Yue Hwa stocks an array of Chinese products long term travel insurance such as tea, medicinal long term travel insurance herbs, food, household items, antiques and traditional Chinese clothes such as the cheongsam.
During Chinese New Year, the Chinatown Food Market buzzes with activities like lion dances and other street performances. A large variety of stalls are set up on Pagoda, Smith, Trengganu and Sago Streets during long term travel insurance the festive season, selling traditional snacks and customary decorations.
In shophouses on Ann Siang Road and Club Street, local designer boutiques such as Asylum and Style:Nordic can be found amidst traditional Chinese clan associations. A popular haunt for today's hipsters, this area of Chinatown blends traditional Chinese heritage with contemporary threads, quirky cafes and chic restaurants.
People's Park , 1 New Market Road . It has a large hawker centre selling local food on the first level. 2nd and 3rd level sells clothes and discount retail store selling cosmetics, skincare, beauty long term travel insurance products and toiletries. edit
OG People's Park , 100 Upper Cross Street , [14] . Sells a wide range of department store merchandise, well known brands such as Adidas, Giordano and Billabong have counters in the building. On the fifth floor, there is a food section selling mainly Korean products, with a Westlake cafe on the third floor. edit
Pearl's Centre , 100 Eu Tong Sen Street . Labyrinthine old shopping mall with a bizarre assortment of stores, ranging from Buddhist paraphernalia (most of the 2nd/3rd floors) to sexy underwear for men (two shops in the basement) long term travel insurance and everything in between. The Yangtze cineplex, infamous for showing only notionally arty soft-porn movies, is located on the fourth floor. edit
Yue Hwa , 70 Eu Tong Sen St ( corner of Cross St ), [16] . Prominently located in central Chinatown, this stately building was originally built in 1936 as Chinatown's top hotel. Today, it's a six-floor emporium of Chinese products, from traditional medicine on the first floor, complete with deer horns and dried bats, to porcelain and furniture on the sixth. The sweeping lobby on the second floor now houses an amazing array of Chinese long term travel insurance tea, ranging from $1.40/100g looseleaf and $3 cups to pedigreed $18,000 pu erh and $80,000 teapots. edit
Lim Chee Guan , 203 New Bridge Rd . The local favourite for this treat, with 3-4 hour queues (with news crews filming this event from time to time) around the Chinese New Year period. Tastier than the competition, but harder to find as it has only two outlet
No comments:
Post a Comment