Chinatown - Niu Che Shui, Singapore

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If you're in Chinatown, and you're in the mood for some culture and history, there are three places to hit. You can go to the Chinatown Heritage Museum, which charges a minimum amount to enter, the Sri Marriaman Temple and the Buddha Tooth Relic Shrine.

I stumbled upon this place by accident. The Buddha Tooth Relic Shrine. I mean I've read about it. I always do my research before going to any place but when I was last in Chinatown, SG, I didn't see it. Finally, my boyfriend and I got hungry and decided to follow our noses... and tastebuds down this little aisle that had tiny foodstalls. We chanced upon the temple. (And to think we've been to Chinatown twice already and it's only on our 3rd time that we saw this MASSIVE place).

Anyway, we entered the ground floor and managed to take lots of pictures. It's only when we passed through the other end that a security guy told me "No shorts. Wear sarong. Borrow there". I couldn't understand what he was saying and all I knew was my shorts were too...err... short. So we skidaddled out of there.

Two months later, I was back in Singapore and determined to go back to that same place. This time, I wore leggings which covered up my legs quite nicely. Turns out, what I thought was just a 1 floor (open to the public) place....was an entire 5 floor shrine to explore!

I highly recommend going all the way up to the rooftop. There you'll see a small orchid garden with around 10,000 tiny buddhas, and a prayer wheel. Take your time up there. Make a round or two with the prayer wheel. (Hold on to the rail and pull it as you walk around). They say that one rotation is equivalent to a prayer! A bell would ring when I did it... and my friend said, that might mean my prayer was answered. (I had a private giggle-- I wasn't praying, I was just having fun turning it).

The next few floors down would show you beautiful buddha statues... there's even one you can bathe! Make your way down to the 4th (or was it 3rd floor) where the Tooth Relic can be found. You'll have to go barefoot here. TIP: hold your breath when you're taking off your shoes and putting them on the shelf...the smell of over a hundred shoes can get overwhelming.

All in all, it's a great place to have an idea of what the Buddhist culture is, get lots of pictures and best of all, it's free.

Donations of course is welcome.

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Having a Chinatown in singapore is a misnomer since according to Wikipedia, a definiton of a chinatown is A Chinatown is a name for an urban region containing a large population of Chinese people and/or a large number of Chinese businesses within a non-Chinese society. Since Singapore is a Chinese Majority Society which 76% of people hawving Chinese ancestry, we can hereby say that Singapore is one whole Chinatown. Singapore Chinatown's primary attraction is the town itself, composed as it is of restored shophouses full of strange little shops selling everything from plastic Buddhas to dried seahorses.

Although it may seem strange to most people to have a Chinatown in a predominantly Chinese city, it isn't strange to me considering where I'm from. The area today is composed of brightly coloured buildings with good restaurants and cool little shops. However, the Chinatown of today doesn't resemble the Chinatown of early Singapore.

Chinatown was formed in the early years of settlement. The British wanted to keep racial tensions minimized and divided the city into districts based on ethnic groups. Three years after Singapore was settled Chinatown had 3,000 inhabitants, most of them penniless and half starving immigrants from mainland China. Over the next decade their numbers would grow to exceed 30,000.

Chinatown is also known as "Niu Che Shui" in Chinese. The literal translation means "bullock carts' water". This name came about in the early days of Singapore when there was no water supply in Chinatown. So the people living and working there relied on bullock carts for the transportation of water. Therefore Chinatown was dubbed "bullock carts' water" by the locals, and the name is still being used by the Singaporeans.

Conditions in the early years were pretty bad. Slophouses, two-story buildings with shops or small factories on the ground floor and living quarters upstairs, were common. Often twenty to thirty lived in a single room. The British did not provide police protection in Chinatown. This was the responsibility of the Chinese guilds, or clan associations, to oversee their own law and order.

This is a very interesting museum. Three old shophouses have been turned into a heritage centre, where you can learn more about the history of Chinatown and the Chinese community/culture in Singapore. There is a lot to see here so don't rush through it. One of the most interesting parts to me was the shophouse that had restored cubicles etc to show how people lived not too long ago.

The heritage centre is open 9 AM to 8 PM Mon-Thu and 9 AM to 9 PM Fri-Sun (last admission is one hour before closing time). The admission fee is $8.80 for adults and $5.30 for children.

Well, I have been to several Chinatown's around the world in various countries and I'm really not a big fan of them, there all the same (except the one in Bangkok)(read my Bangkok travel pages) and the same goes for the Chinatown here in Singapore......Cheap souvenirs and cheap food abound, don't get me wrong if you have never exprienced a Chinatown anywhere in the world then come to the one here in Singapore and you'll experince what I'm talking about and if you ever go to a city with a Chinatown you'll see that there all the same, but I come to Chinatown looking for the odd souvenir's or odd art work and believe me you'll find it !!!!! HIGHLY RECOMMEND it, if you never been in one, if you been in one, SKIP it....and do something else with your time, your not missing much !!!!!

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There's really no need for a tour guide. I took the train to Esplanade (Green Line) and made my way around by means of walking. I ended up seeing the Merlion, Raffles Hotel, even the 2 museums I wanted to visit (Singapore art Museum and 8Q SAM

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My visit to China town was in afternoon. Once you are here you feel as if you are in China, in one of the shopping lanes of Guangzhou. From China Town you can shop lots of souvenirs, perfumes, etc which are really cheap. You can get good Chinese food here. Few of the stalls also have Thai food to offer. Most of these stalls are road side eateries hence it turns out to be cheaper than having lunch in a restaurant. After a tiring walk through the streets of China Town and doing a lot of shopping, I and my wife took a good authentic Chinese foot massage from the parlor which was managed by old Chinese uncle. It was absolutely relaxing and refreshing at the same time......try it.....

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Primary atttraction is town itself, with little shops, open air markets. Nightlife is dynamic (be aware, if I understood correctly, that some gay bars are here, identied by a rainbow flag).

After little india, walking in Chinatown is also a good way to discover an other face of this city. This array is animated, with open air market and street-food everywhere. More tourists also and it could be a little crowed after 8:00 pm

Some good massage parlors also (40S$ for one hour, chinese massages)

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