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Next stop... Chinatown!

Almost 70% of Singapore's population consists of Chinese and it is no surprise that there is a Chinatown for the Chinese. Likewise there were areas demarcated for the Malays, Indians and Eurasians as part of the Raffles Town Plan in 1828.

Today, Chinatown, along with many parts of Singapore have become commercialized and urbanized. Through this blog, we are going to bring you through a side of Chinatown that is often overlooked.
We embarked on a Heritage Trail in September this year and this was the path we took.


Read on to find out more!

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Ryan's reflections

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Ryan’s reflections Before going on this trail, my impression was that Chinatown catered mainly to tourists rather than the locals. Thus, Chinatown became a place where my family and I visited only during the Chinese New Year to enjoy the festive atmosphere. I rarely, if ever, ventured out of the area around People’s Park Complex and the OG shopping complex. Thus, I was disappointed to receive Chinatown as our location, as I thought that less explored places like Joo Chiat or Balestier would be more ‘exciting’ to explore. As we started the trail, I had apprehensions until our group stumbled upon a hidden park that I did not know existed so near to our modern city centre (Ann Siang Park). Even more surprisingly to me, this small, unassuming park had a rich historical significance. This discovery made me start becoming more and more curious about what is to come. At this point, I started to view this heritage trail through the lens of a history student and a teacher-to
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