Renovated Shop houses and junk store
Encompassing Smith, Temple, Pagoda, Terengganu and Sago streets, this was the area that Raffles marked out for the Chinese kampong and it became the hub of the Chinese community. Renovation by the URA has meant that these streets still retain their characteristic baroque-style shophouses, with weathered shutters and ornamentation. A good example is the Thong Chai Medical Institute on Eu Tong Sen Street, at the corner of Merchant Road. In Sago Street (or ‘death house alley’ as it was known in Cantonese, named after its hospices), Temple Street and Smith Street, there are shops making paper houses and cars, designed to improve the quality of the afterlife for dead relatives. The English probably gave Sago Street its name in the early 19th century, as Singapore became a centre of high-quality sago production for export to India and Europe.
There are also a number of Chinese medicine shops in this area; for example, Kwang Onn Herbal, 14 Trengganu Street, and others on Sago Street. On show are antlers and horns, dried frogs and flying lizards, trays of mushrooms and fungi, baskets of dried seahorses and octopus, sharks’ fins and ginseng. For anyone looking for a full range of Chinese products – from silk camisoles to herbal medicines, beaded bags and Chinese tea – a good bet is to visit the Yue Hwa Chinese Emporium on the corner of Eu Tong Sen and Upper Cross streets.
As if to illustrate Singapore’s reputation as a cultural and religious melting pot, the Hindu Sri Mariamman Temple is situated nearby at 244 South Bridge Road. It’s dedicated to Sri Mariamman, a manifestation of Siva’s wife Parvati. The temple is the site of the annual Thimithi Festival, held in late October or early November.
At 48 Pagoda Street is the Chinatown Heritage Centre (6325 2878, http://www.chinatownheritage.com.sg, daily 0900-2000 last admission 1900, S$9.80, children S$6.30), which is well worth a visit. The centre evocatively captures the lives of early Chinese settlers with mock-ups of boats, coffeehouses, opium dens and squalid housing through the ages, including kitchens, bedrooms and even a prostitute’s boudoir.
Telok Ayer Street is full of shophouses and fascinating temples of different religions and was once one of the most important streets in Singapore. The city’s oldest Chinese temple, the Taoist Thian Hock Keng Temple, or Temple of Heavenly Happiness, is a gem (notwithstanding the naff fibreglass wishing well in one corner). A little way north of Thian Hock Keng is another much smaller Chinese temple, the Fuk Tak Chi Temple (76 Telok Ayer St, daily 1000-2200, free), one of the oldest of Singapore’s temples, restored in 1998 and now a museum.
One of Chinatown’s more interesting places is the Tea Chapter (9 Neil Rd, 6226 1175, http://www.tea-chapter.com.sg, daily 1100-2300), where visitors are introduced to the intricacies of tea tasting in elegant surroundings. You will be invited to remove your shoes and can sit in one of their special rooms or upstairs on the floor. It’s a distinctly soothing experience....
