Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
59
commercial districts. The P eranakans
and E urasians w ere tolerant gr oups, a
result of interracial marriages and mul-
ticultural family life, who cr eated a
close-knit community that 's carried
over to the present day. Main streets are
still lined with Peranakan restaurants as
well as many Catholic chur ches and
schools that served the Eurasians.
G
EYLANG
As public transportation opened up the
eastern sections of the island, neighbor-
hoods extended far ther out. G eylang,
the neighborhood just bey ond Katong,
was and still is primarily a M alay dis-
trict. Joo Chiat and Geylang roads were
once lined with antiques shops and
restaurants where halal foods, in accor-
dance with I slamic laws, w ere ser ved.
Today a lot of the shophouses are being
renovated, but it 's still a good ar ea to
find house wares, fabrics, and modern
furniture shops. At night, parts of Gey-
lang ar e notorious for par tially r egu-
lated prostitution.
C
HANGI
V
ILLAGE
Also to the east is Changi Village, at the
far eastern tip of the island. It was built
as the r esidential section of a B ritish
military post, but the B rits ar e gone
now and Changi is pr etty quiet, with
not much to see other than a large
hawker center with some gr eat seafood
and a public beach from which you can
see Singapore's northern islands, Malay-
sia, and I ndonesia. The one notable
aspect of the place is that it's where you
pick up ferries to Pulau Ubin.
T
IONG
B
AHRU
To the w est is an old neighborhood,
younger generations hav e since mo ved
on to bigger housing in the New Towns,
leaving the place mostly populated b y
the elderly.
H
OLLAND
V
ILLAGE
Located to the west of the city, Holland
Village is another famous neighbor-
hood that's become a tourist attraction
in its o wn right. I ts nucleus of shops
carries mer chandise catering to the
wants and needs of Westerners, many of
whom r eside in the vicinity . D espite
Western customers, ther e ar en't neces-
sarily Western goods her e, but rather
the kind of rattan furnishings, baskets,
pottery, and other r egional gifts and
housewares that add Asian touches to
otherwise Western-style homes.
T
HE
N
EW
T
OWNS
In the 1960s, to deal with the gr owing
Singapore populations, the government
created a scheme to build r esidential
areas along an imaginar y circle around
the center of the island. These N ew
Towns consist of blocks of high-rise
public apartments around which shops,
markets, schools, and clinics settled to
support the r esidents. Villages, farms,
and orchards were leveled; swamps were
drained; and local str eams were turned
into concrete channels to make way for
towns such as B edok, Tampines, Pasir
Ris, Toa Payoh, B ishan, Ang M o Kio,
Yishun, Woodlands, and Clementi.
4
One trip on the sub way, and all these
names become familiar , as the M
ass
Rapid Transit (MR T) system was
brought into the scheme to pr ovide
affordable transpor tation to all the
towns.
Since 1960, almost one million go v-
ernment-subsidized apar tments hav e
been built, allowing over 80% of Singa-
pore's population to o wn their o wn
homes. B ut ho wever appealing this
housing scheme sounded at first, r esi-
dents in N ew Towns hav e their com-
plaints. The apar tments hav e become
Tiong B ahru. I ts original inhabitants
were Chinese fr om the Chinato wn and
Tanjong P agar district, and the neigh-
borhood remains largely Chinese today .
In the 1960s, the go vernment r eplaced
small homes and makeshift housing with
high-rise public apartment housing. The
