According to ITYPEMBA, Singapore is one of the most unusual cities in Asia. The largest trade center of the region and one of the main ports of Asia, it has attracted the attention of millions of visitors from all over the world since its foundation. It reflects the nature of the development of all of Asia – rapid development combined with loyalty to tradition.
Acquaintance with Singapore usually begins with a visit to the symbol of the city – Marlion. It is a beast with a lion’s head and a fish’s tail. Marlion stands at the mouth of the Singapore River, and offers an excellent view of the skyscrapers of the city. There are several distinctive districts in Singapore – this is the central business district (CBD), Chinatown (Chinatown), Little India (Little India), Kampong Glam Muslim District.
The inner city was planned and developed by Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore. Here you can see the Cathedral of St. Andrew, built in the early English Gothic style; Cathedral of the Good Shepherd, which was built in 1846 and is the oldest Roman Catholic church in Singapore; an Armenian church built in 1835; hotel Raffles, where kings and queens, presidents and prime ministers, as well as world famous writers – Somerset Maugham, Joseph Conrad and Rudyard Kipling stayed; parliament building (1827); the Victoria Theatre; Empress Place, a former government building now converted into a cultural complex with restaurants, shops, an art gallery and a large exhibition hall; St. Joseph’s Institute, one of the most beautiful buildings of the colonial era; the famous street of skyscrapers Orched Road with its palaces Peranakan and Istana; Monument to Stamford Raffles. The largest museums in Singapore are the Museum of Art and the National Museum.
Walk through the many streets and lanes of Chinatown allows you to see artisans at work, as well as ancient activities such as Chinese calligraphy, the making of paintings, icons and incense sticks. The area is at its busiest during the Chinese New Year holiday, when the entire area is brightly lit with lamps and crowded with stalls and markets selling festive goods and treats. There are many temples here, the most colorful of which is Tian Hok Keng. In this quarter there is one of the most beautiful mosques of the city – Al-Abrar and the oldest Hindu temple of the city – Sri Mariamman (1827)
Little India – this is a motley ethnic corner. The main attractions of the area are the Zhujiao Center and the numerous colorful spice shops nearby, the Little India arcade, the fifteen-meter statue of a seated Buddha, the Veeramakaliamman Temple, the Sri Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple and the charming Temple of 1000 Lights. During Deepvali, India’s festival of light, Little India turns into a dreamland full of brightly decorated and lit streets that shoppers aspire to enter.
Kampong Glam was originally a small fishing village. Today it is a bustling shopping district and a traditional “textile district” famous for batik, silk, carpets, sarongs and other light clothing.
At the Singapore Zoo only a few of the 200 animals are caged. Most of them are kept in open spacious enclosures, where natural habitat conditions are imitated and where only obstacles in the form of reservoirs or low stone walls separate the animals from the public. The obstacles that are insurmountable for the inhabitants of the park are sometimes so well camouflaged that there is a complete feeling of being next to formidable predators or funny monkeys, and the animals do not feel like prisoners. Here you can see very rare and endangered species. For example, monitor lizard from Komodo Island (the world’s largest lizard), black-backed tapir, smoky leopard, Sumatran tiger, pig deer. Here they offer a unique entertainment – breakfast in the company of an orangutan. Another entertainment is the “Night Safari”, for which 40 hectares of land have been allocated, adjacent to the zoo. Here, on the territory of an untouched tropical forest, animals live, which can be observed under special artificial lighting. You can travel by electric car or walk through the jungle on hiking trails
Singapore is famous for its parks. The largest of these is the National Park, which includes the Botanical Gardens, Canning Hill Fort Park, Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, and a vast watershed in the center of the island. The Botanical Garden has existed for more than 100 years. Its rich collection, located on an area of 32 hectares, includes more than 500 thousand species of tropical plants.
The territory of the Bukit Timah reserve is occupied by dense tropical vegetation, giving an idea of what Singapore looked like. when the British first arrived. On an area of 60 hectares, where the highest point of the island is located, such representatives of the animal world as the long-tailed macaque, woolly wing, squirrel, civet, bright forest birds live. There are also pythons, tree snakes, cobras, kraits. Many of these animals are also found in the vast drainage area in the center of the island, where the lakes of MacRitchie, Seletar and Pierce are located. Most of this area is occupied by tropical rainforest, but in some places there are picturesque green lawns, picnic glades.
Another place worth visiting by nature lovers is Sungey Buloh Nature Park. This reserve is founded on swampy soils, and unique ecological conditions have been created on its territory. Migratory birds overwinter here from September to March. Some of them fly here even from Eastern Siberia.
An interesting place to visit is Mandai Orchid Park, which presents one of the world’s largest collections of these flowers. Another great park is the Jurong Bird Park, home to over 3,500 birds. The territory of the park includes two golf courses, several small islands, a river and a lake. Opposite the Bird Park there is another attraction – the Reptile Park. The compact territory is inhabited by crocodiles, snakes, turtles, lizards, iguanas. You can watch the crocodiles being fed or see how the trainer puts his head right into the toothy mouth.
More like a city in its own right, Jurong District is home to the Chinese Garden, which is modeled after the garden of the Imperial Summer Palace in Beijing and is adorned with water pavilions built in the architectural style of the Song Dynasty. Nearby is the Japanese Garden, which is considered the largest of this type of park outside of Japan. Jurong has the Naval Museum, the Fish Museum, the Air Force Museum, the World War II memorial (including part of the Japanese concentration camp), the Museum of Asian Civilizations, the Museum of Malay Culture in Geylang and many small private collections.
