Insight Guides City Guide Singapore (Travel Guide eBook)

Insight Guides

• Publisher: Insight
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781786716743
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

The tropical city-state of Singapore may be small, but it packs a punch with a wealth of dazzling modern attractions, while also being a unique melting pot of Asian and Western influences. Inside Insight City Guide Singapore: A fully-overhauled edition by our expert Singapore author.Stunning photography that brings this vibrant city and its people to life. Highlights of the city's top attractions, from ethnic neighbourhoods such as Little India and Kampung Glam to the unique wonders of Gardens by the Bay and Singapore's Night Safari.Descriptive area-by-area accounts cover the whole city from the colonial Civic District to the beaches and theme parks of Sentosa.A comprehensive Travel Tips section includes all the practical information you will need for your trip.Detailed, high-quality maps throughout will help you get around and travel tips give you all the essential information for planning a memorable trip.

About Insight Guides: Insight Guides has over 40 years' experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides. We produce around 400 full-colour print guide books and maps as well as picture-packed eBooks to meet different travellers' needs. Insight Guides' unique combination of beautiful travel photography and focus on history and culture together create a unique visual reference and planning tool to inspire your next adventure.

'Insight Guides has spawned many imitators but is still the best of its type.' - Wanderlust Magazine

The Civic District

From the site where Raffles first landed in 1819, you can explore the heart of Singapore, speckled with stately colonial buildings and majestic churches, and a mix of lively quays, theatres and museums.

Main Attractions

Asian Civilisations Museum

The Fullerton Singapore

Merlion Park

The Esplanade Theatres

Singapore Flyer

Raffles Hotel

National Museum

Peranakan Museum

Clarke Quay

Nearly two centuries after Stamford Raffles first set foot in Singapore, the island is still governed from the colonial nucleus he established on the east bank of the Singapore River. A walk in this Civic District – the heart of colonial Singapore – is essentially a stroll down memory lane, featuring sights and monuments that reflect the city-state’s rich historical past.

City Hall.

STB/Joseph Goh Meng Huat

Raffles’s Landing Site

It’s appropriate to start this walk from where it all began – at Raffles’s Landing Site 1 [map] on the left bank of the Singapore River, the commercial lifeline of Singapore for more than a century. It was here, on the very spot where a replica white marble statue of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles stands, that the founder of modern Singapore stepped ashore on 28 January 1819. The view of the skyline on the opposite side of the river from the landing site is stunning: an arc of beautifully restored shophouses above the steps of Boat Quay set against the dramatic backdrop of soaring towers in Raffles Place (for more information, click here) – a wonderful contrast of the old and the new.

The landmark statue of Raffles.

Dreamstime

The Arts House

Just behind is The Arts House 2 [map] , a performing arts centre that took over the premises of the Old Parliament House, Singapore’s oldest state building (box office tel: [phone]; www.theartshouse.com.sg). Refurbished but still retaining its original spaces, it features a 200-seat chamber for music and drama performances – previously used by members of parliament for debate – a visual arts gallery and a 75-seat art-house cinema.

Built in 1827 as the home of a British merchant, the building was the work of George Coleman, the architect responsible for shaping much of colonial Singapore. It was turned into a courthouse and later became the parliament house for the incumbent government. Keep an eye out for the bronze elephant statue in the courtyard, a gift from Thailand’s King Chulalongkorn in 1871.

The new Parliament House, just next door, was completed in 1999 – five times larger but still retaining the colonial architectural style. Porcelain dating back to the Ming and Yuan dynasties was found on the site during construction and is now displayed in the new complex. Parliament proceedings are open to the public; guided tours by appointment only.

The new Parliament House.

Vincent Ng/Apa Publications

Asian Civilisations Museum

Address: 1 Empress Place, www.acm.org.sg

Tel: [phone]-3284

Opening Hrs: Sat–Thur 10am–7pm, Fri 10am–9pm

Entrance Fee: charge

Transport: Raffles Place MRT

Adjacent to The Arts House is the Asian Civilisations Museum 3 [map] . Housed in the neoclassical Empress Place Building, this is one of the oldest structures in Singapore. Built by Indian convicts in 1864–7 and designed by J.F.A. McNair, it was first unveiled as a courthouse for the colonial government and later housed Singapore’s legislative assembly. By the early 1980s, the building had seen better days, and there was talk of demolition. Fortunately, the Singapore Tourism Board came to the rescue and spent millions renovating it. It engaged the services of a French Gothic and neoclassical conservationist, Didier Repellin, who helped restore the building to its original splendour. In 1989, it reopened as a museum showcasing Chinese artefacts, but it closed after a few years.

More restoration work followed, and in March 2003 it became home to the Asian Civilisations Museum. At 14,000 sq metres (151,000 sq ft), this outstanding museum (for more information, click here) provides generous space to display its sizeable collections on the civilisations of East, Southeast, South and West Asia.

With 11 galleries spread over three levels, each of the four regions has its own thematic storyline and permanent displays integrated with interactive kiosks and discovery corners, along with a centre specially dedicated to younger visitors.

Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall

Facing the side of the Asian Civilisations Museum are two distinctive and venerable structures well known to local drama fans and concert-lovers: the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall 4 [map] (originally known as Victoria Memorial Hall), which are undergoing major renovations. Both were built in the 1880s to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. The Victoria Theatre was originally built as Singapore’s town hall in 1862 before being converted into a theatre in 1905. It features a distinctive clock tower with a Westminster chime that has never stopped pealing on the hour since its installation in 1906.

Fact

The bronze statue of Stamford Raffles outside the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall was crafted by Thomas Woolner and first unveiled in 1887, before being moved to its present site in 1919.

The concert hall stages opera, ballet and classical music, while the theatre is a principal performance venue for dance and plays. After a three-year-restoration, the Victoria Theatre and Victoria Concert Hall reopened their doors in August 2014. The venues also house music, dance and theatre rehearsal rooms.

Just opposite is the Dalhousie Obelisk, a memorial dedicated to Marquis Dalhousie, India’s governor-general 1848–56, who visited Singapore in 1850.

Cavenagh/Anderson bridges

A walk from the Asian Civilisations Museum, along the riverside, leads to Cavenagh Bridge 5 [map] and Anderson Bridge. The latter was built in 19...

Table of contents

• Singapore’s Top 10 Attractions
• Editor’s Choice
• Introduction: Savvy Singapore
• A Nation of Cultures
• Decisive Dates
• Growth of a Lion City
• Social Campaigns
• Events and Festivals
• Insight: A Potpourri of Festivals
• Singapore After Dark
• Cuisine
• Insight: Singapore-style Hawker Food
• Shopping
• Introduction: Introduction
• The Civic District
• Insight: The Asian Civilisations Museum
• Chinatown, the Central Business District and Marina Bay
• Insight: Feng Shui Principles
• Orchard Road and Surrounds
• Insight: Orchids in a Garden City
• Little India and Kampung Glam
• Insight: Singapore Shophouses
• Sentosa and the Southern Islands
• Southern and Western Singapore
• The East Coast
• Central and Northern Singapore
• Transport
• A-Z: A Handy Summary of Practical Information
• Further Reading
• Singapore Street Atlas