Singapore own Artificial Intelligence - Places of Interest: Chinatown

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Chinatown - Part I

Stepping onto Chinatown

...

Singapore’s Chinatown has a very special and unique name – Niu Che Shui ( 牛车水 ). The name means ‘bullock carts water’ when directly translated in Mandarin. In the early days, bullock carts were used to transport water around the places and thus this is how it has begotten its name.

Look at these shophouses! These were specially designated for the Chinese community in the 1828 Town Plan, and were once filled with immigrants that came from China. You can now catch a glimpse of their living space in Chinatown Heritage Centre along Pangoda Street.

As I embarked on my journey in rediscovering Chinatown, I was filled with different insights. These are a few shops lining up the streets, and they always have surprises installed for you, from the most practical items, i.e. a cap, a hand-held fan for you to fight the sun with, they even have handicraft items. I always thought that Chinatown is a shopping destination for the older generation, it was an eye-opener for me to see that Chinatown has modernized and selling apparels that appeals to the young ones. Yeah, you will definitely not regret exploring Chinatown, and that's provided if you have the time and enough leg muscles to conquer the shopping aka cultural village! In addition to that, the prices are very reasonable and there's a wide variety to choose from! And of course, even if you are tired from all the walk, there are local food centers, pubs and cafe whereby you can take a breather and enjoy watching the walks of life before your eyes!

Besides fashion, I found out that the tourists hot spots are the cultural shops that sells antiques, mini-Buddha statues, or mostly sourvinier shops. Indeed, they are very popular sites, be very impressed when you walked into the shop and see what is presented before your eyes! (Sorry, no photography inside the shop. Boo boo!) Oh, if you think they only sell BIG items, you are wrong. They are also selling antique mirrors, those hand-held ones, delicated gift-cases and ancient wooden boxes for safekeeping of your accessories.

The photographs shown below captured the beauty of antique statues.