Sun dried fish

15-05-11-036-1-APX100

Taken on: 18th May, 2011. Copyright: All Rights Reserved - See Redt16s's page of Flickr

Read more about Chinatown

It may seem redundant to have a Chinatown in a predominantly Chinese city, but you'll change your mind when you see it. Though Chinatown lies on the fringe of the central business district, they feel a century apart. The glass skyscrapers are shrunk to three-storey shophouses, people recharge with herbal teas instead of Starbucks, and life goes by at a slower, if perhaps noisier, pace. Though the signs continue to be in English, the voices ring out in Cantonese and Mandarin dialects.

Long before Sir Stamford Raffles arrived and designated it the Chinese enclave, the area southwest of the Singapore River had been settled by merchants and farmers from China. As the influx of Chinese immigrants continued, the new arrivals started businesses, established trade guilds, and built temples to thank the gods for their safe arrival in this new country. As Chinatown grew it became overcrowded with residents sleeping in shifts in the small living quarters above the shophouses ... Read our complete Chinatown travel guide

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