Heritage Trail Poster

Fazzera's Reflection

Prior to this heritage trail, I can only remember ever visiting Chinatown thrice. Once when I was in secondary school as part of a learning journey, the other was when I had to accompany my mom to a tailor – of which both times was as dreadful as I can remember a few years ago. I personally felt that the place had no significance in my life as I have only seen it as just a tourist attraction and a place where our local Chinese will visit during the festive periods. By actually typing out my past impressions of the place leaves me ashamed of how ignorant I was. >.<

That aside, I was glad that my group had been selected to visit Chinatown as this provided me a chance to actually visit the place with an open mind. The heritage trail was an enriching experience for me as it has allowed me to gain a better understanding of Chinatown’s history and culture. When my group and I were walking around and searching for the particular areas and streets we needed to visit, it actually made me much more observant of the location, the architecture and the people around. It made me realise that every little part of the streets had its own history and stories that made up the past of Singapore.

The site that interests me most is the Telok Ayer street as six of Singapore’s national monuments can be found there. Although we only visited four of it, the fact that a site or structure is gazetted as a national monument meant that it holds so much historical, architectural and social importance to Singapore’s heritage. As the first landing point for immigrants, the early communities built their respective places of worship on Telok Ayer street to express gratitude to their deities for their safe passage through the harsh voyage. Although the Telok Ayer area was designated for the Chinese community according to the Jackson Town Plan of 1822, the location of these places of worship made Telok Ayer a multi-cultural space where different communities co-existed. It was interesting to be able to see places of worship like temples, mosque and church co-existing in the same region.

Essentially, this heritage trail has been meaningful as it has exposed me to understand the rich history and culture of Chinatown. It was really an enjoyable experience this time around with my group mates. On top of that, I was pleasant to see tourists visiting the historical sites but at the same time, it made me realise how disheartening it is that more tourists indicates their interest in the diverse heritage of Singapore than local Singaporeans actually do. Thus, I feel that it is important to raise greater awareness of these heritages and the significance of various places in Singapore, especially to the younger generations that we will be educating in the future.

Shin Jie's Reflection

I have been to Chinatown several times especially when I was in primary school and the teacher arranged for class visits to Chinatown for a learning journey experience. As a student, my objective for each learning journey was merely to finish the task assigned by the teacher. I was not curious and did not think there would be many interesting stories behind each historical sites.

However, my recent trip to the Chinatown on the heritage trail with my group members was really an eye-opener and definitely made me appreciate more about Singapore history and  its cultural heritage. Chinatown, other than being well known for its traditional shops, markets and cafes, it is actually filled with its own unique history hidden behind each infrastructure as it is one of the early settlements for immigrants when they first arrived in Singapore. As a group, we discussed and shared our views while we moved from site to site. Some of us have better knowledge about a certain place than the other. Hence, going into discussions were useful for the rest of the people to understand and appreciate the site better.

From the heritage trail, one of the sites which left an unforgettable moment in my mind would be the Thian Hock Keng Temple. The elegant looking temple was actually the oldest Chinese temple in Singapore which has more than 100 years of history. Standing at the entrance of the temple, I could imagine the scenarios that happened back in 1850s where people will gather at the temple to pray for calm waves and a safe journey back to their homeland. How i wish i could get to see that scene!

Another interesting site was the visit to Eu Yan Sang. To us, Eu Yan Sang was just a ordinary looking Chinese medical shop which has many branches around Singapore. Neither did i think that there would be a long history behind it. Eu Yan Sang started off with a small, home-grown business, led by Eu Kong who has a mindset of caring for the people and helping to free the collies from addiction of opium. It was such a heartwarming and inspiring story. How I wish I could meet him in real life for it is hard to find someone who has so much passion for humanity!

Over the years, Chinatown has changed to become more modern and the old historical buildings could be hardly seen. However, there are some distinct features kept untouched by the government which will definitely help people learn more about their story and reminisce about the past. Life has always been an easy one for us so tend to be ignorant and take things for granted. We live a sheltered life because of what our forefathers have build for us. Hence, such heritage trail does help us appreciate what our forefathers have achieved and remind us about their hardships.

Thus, this heritage trail reminded me to take some time off my busy schedule and appreciate some of the remaining monuments and sites. The route to Singapore's success was not an easy one and it took us years to achieve that.  Hence, I am thankful for the efforts put in by our forefathers. This will also motivate me to work harder and contribute more to Singapore in the future so that the next generations (students) could also experience the fruits of our labors. Overall, it was an enriching and fun trip where i gained new insights and knowledge about the early immigrants' (Chinese, Malays , Indian, Boyanese) culture and contributions to Singapore.

Reflection

The journey to Chinatown gave me a very big hindsight on how the area was during the colonial times. As we walked down the South Bridge Road and encounter the different roads and lanes that are so rich with stories and history it gave me so many things to learn. How the early immigrants chose to settle down in Singapore and make this place their home.

The streets have many stories to tell since the colonial times and walking through these places with the timeline in mind, it feels like experiencing the place back in those times. On of the historic icon that stays in my mind was when we walked down the Sago lane. It was the houses for the dead. It was very hard to comprehend that these street houses were for the sick and dying early immigrants back then. It was a very heart wrenching moment when we read about that lane.

These sites that were recognized as sites of history for Singapore do serve a very important purpose for the general public. It shows how much the early immigrants suffered during those times and yet they still chose to stay and make this place their home. Our forefathers chose to make Singapore their home that is where we are today. The trail gave me so much feels on the history of chinatown as well as Singapore. I went to chinatown many times but never notice the richness of history this place had. The trail made me want to explore more historical sites in Singapore that was conserve like Kampung Glam as well as Little India. Till then, I think I did value added myself through this trail and I am sure I will be able to value add my students next time in schools through heritage trails like this. Team Chinatown Sign out!

Telok Ayer

 Telok Ayer was a place that resides alot of early residents of Singapore. It was very near the shore so most of the people living there were on kelongs or by the sea. The statues depicts how the people lived during the colonial times at Telok Ayer area.

South Bridge Road

South Bridge Road, street, located in the Outram and Singapore River areas of the Central Region, in Singapore. One of the thriving centres of the city in the heart of Chinatown, South Bridge Road has been an important street, and one of the main thoroughfares linking the town and the New Harbour. The road stretches south from Elgin Bridge to Maxwell Road/Tanjong Pagar Road/Neil Road. It cuts through the heart of Chinatown which connects most of the historical streets in Chinatown.

Smith Street

Next Stop Smith Street!

Smith Street is one of the adjoining streets in today's Chinatown that had quite a reputation during the colonial times. It had three and four-storey brothels which along with prostitution, also promoted opium smoking, drinking and gambling. It was a place where most chinese male migrants who are alone and does not have families spent most of their evenings.

Currently the street has transformed into eateries and cafes where people come during the evenings to enjoy the delicacies here. However the buildings that were used during the colonial times were built and conserved to show the significance of this street during those days,

 As we walked through the streets it can be seen that the buildings were conserved and even rebuilt due to the destruction of the building during the Japanese Occupation, to educate the public what this street used to be,

This buildings shows how the early immigrants of Singapore lived through colonial times. It also shows sentiments of people at that point of time. This street also has an opera theater that rich chinese merchants came to watch and spent most evening drinking and enjoy the entertainment it offers. It is called Lai Chui Yuen. We went to the original building of Lai Chui Yuen as shown in the short vidoe clip below.

As we walked all the way to the end of the street, we head on towards the Kreta Ayer Complex where it used to be a shelter during the japanese occupation.