Today was my first day in Singapore. Once I was up, I decided to do a little sightseeing before my business scheduled kicked in. Last time I was here I did a walking tour of Little India. It was very cool so I decided to do the walking tour of Chinatown this time. It’s an easy start with a trip in the MRT from City Hall to Raffles Place. You walk up from the station to a large park-like area with huge, gleaming towers that are very contradictory to the history you are about to see.
My first stop along the way was the Wak Hai Cheng Bio Temple. The entrance into the temple is typical Chinese – ornate and beautiful.
It’s said to be one of the oldest – if not the oldest – Chinese Temple in Singapore. You can tell it’s very old and it’s a functioning temple still. While I was there, there were many worshipers coming in to light incense and offer prayers.
The place was filled with incense – people were burning bundles of incense sticks as they prayed and the monks walked around hanging spiral incense from the beams of the temple. Outside in the courtyard, there were large pits where worshipers burned their prayer papers.
I left the Wak Hai Cheng Bio Temple and walked along Telok Ayer Street (which means “bay waterâ€). There is a huge dinning precinct here called the Far East Square. It’s HUGE and, practically engulfed by the builders, is the small Fuk Tak Ch’I Museum. It’s very tiny and holds only a couple of exhibits demonstrating the way the area once looked when the town was built along the bay (now covered over by construction).
I walked a bit further and passed a few more very old buildings incorporated into new structures including a tiny mosque built around 1828. It was easy to miss, not very impressive in its architecture but historical nonetheless. Just beyond the mosque is the beautifully restored Thian Hock Keng Temple. This one vies with the Wak Hai Cheng Bio Temple as Singapore’s oldest Chinese Temple – but this one is an obvious tourist attraction as well. Lots of tour buses were pulling up, dropping off visitors as I walked through the area. And the restoration was magnificent.
 
I walked a bit further pass the Al-Abrar Mosque built around 1950 and then turned onto Amboy Street where I saw another temple, the Siang Cho Keong Temple built around 1867.
I climbed up the staircase next to this temple to what is supposed to be the highest point in Chinatown. This was a disappointment because it didn’t seem that high – beautiful, but not that high. And it was dwarfed by the tall skyscrapers surrounding it. The good thing for me was there were plenty of small covered areas…and the sky opened with a strong rain shower just as I hit this area. I ran for cover in one of these places and listened to the rain pound the surrounding tin roofs of the buildings. It was kind of refreshing because it did lower the temperature considerably!
As I moved toward the heart of Chinatown, I passed a very old and small Indian temple, the Layar Sithi Vinygar Temple. This is the only exterior picture I have because the charged tourists $3 for camera and $6 for a video camera if you wanted to go inside.
From here I moved quickly into the heart of Chinatown – Smith, Temple and Pagoda streets. This is also where the Chinatown Night Market is, much like we’ve visited in Taiwan and Hong Kong. This one was certainly set up for tourists! The one thing I really wanted to see was the Chinatown Complex complete with its shops, food centre, and wet market. Unfortunately, it was closed down for renovations. The area surrounding it had become the gathering place for the locals. I was amused by a large area where several generations of men gathered to play Chinese checkers – serious stuff here!
I also noticed a large tent that was set up for the Vasek Celebration. Just on the boundaries of Chinatown, on South Bridge Street, a new temple had been constructed. Only last night it was dedicated with the Prime Minister in attendance, parades and the Dragon Dance! I was sorry that I missed it – but the tent still held numerous food vendors. I spent about $3 on some local treats – a great lunch break.
I wandered Chinatown a bit longer and then made my way to the new temple. There is also a museum inside built around a “relic,†one of Buddah’s teeth. This big celebration was for that purpose. The lines to get into the Temple were wrapped around the building so I decided to head back to the MRT on Pagoda Street and head back to the hotel. My meetings for the day would be starting soon and I needed to get a shower!
