Your base for exploring this destination is the city of Singapore. For travel information about Singapore, go to Singapore Travel Guide. If planning a trip to Singapore, view the Singapore Budget Accommodation Map to find a suitable place to spend the night.
Chinatown is the area in Singapore south of the Singapore River. While it may seem peculiar to have a Chinatown in a country that is predominantly Chinese, this area was parcelled out by Stamford Raffles for Chinese immigrants when he subdivided the city of Singapore along racial lines in the early 1820s.
Today the Singapore Chinatown is a delightful place to explore. You can admire the beautifully restored shophouses with their five-foot ways. Five-foot ways were another invention of Stamford Raffles. According to the story, Raffles was caught in the rain while in Singapore, and he decided that henceforth, town houses should be built in such a way that a common passage of about five feet in width should be added, on the ground floor, for the common use of passers-by. This law was then extended to other towns in the Straits Settlement and Malaya. Today, shophouses with five foot ways can still be seen in most Malaysian towns including Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Taiping, Ipoh, to name a few.
Not everything in Chinatown is Chinese. You will come across mosques, Hindu temples as well as the occasional church as you explore this area. The following is a list of places to visit while you are there. Have fun!
About the Author: AsiaExplorers is researched and written by Timothy Tye. We take reasonable care to check and verify the accuracy of the content. However, we disclaim any responsibility for any inconvenience, mishap, injury or death resulting from following the advice provided directly or indirectly by AsiaExplorers and the comments on its pages. All the photographs in AsiaExplorers are available for publication. Please contact AsiaExplorers at the following email address for your enquiries:
