Up Your Alley: Hidden gems around Singapore's Chinatown
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Up Your Alley: Subconscious gems around Singapore'southward Chinatown
This is the first of CNA's new serial to uncover hidden gems around Singapore. Write in to tell usa what makes your neighbourhood special.
Clockwise from left: Cobbler's Foursquare, creative person Yip Yew Chong and 1 of his murals, Mr Yip and CNA's Diane Leow outside the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and chickens at Duxton Obviously Park. (Photos: Jeremy Long)
01 Nov 2022 06:00AM (Updated: 11 Aug 2022 xi:10PM)
SINGAPORE: Depending on which generation y'all come from, hanging out in Singapore'due south Chinatown could bring to heed 2 very different experiences. It could mean braving a perpetual swarm of bargain hunters and foodies and weaving past the area'southward permanent fixtures on weekends - groups of old uncles shooting the breeze all day while sitting on plastic chairs, walking aids strewn bated; or it could mean the throbbing hipster enclave of Duxton and Ann Siang Hill.
For street creative person Yip Yew Chong, who grew up in Chinatown during Singapore's formative decades, the neighbourhood is so much more.
And while much has inverse, he showed us what he knows and loves of the old Chinatown for CNA's Upwardly Your Alley serial, which seeks to uncover hidden gems in your neighbourhood.
Here are his picks:
COBBLERS' SQUARE
Cobblers' Foursquare is where you endure the stern stares, terse exchanges and brusque ways of aging uncles to take your worn out shoes and other footwear revived.
You'll pass the cobblers when you lot come out through Chinatown MRT'south Exit C, towards OG Department Store at People's Park, People's Park Complex or People'due south Park Nutrient Centre - home to the famous mala xiangguo stall Ri Ri Hong.
Mr Yip recalls the fourth dimension before the MRT station was built, when the unabridged square was taken up past the many makeshift stalls with rubber soles and cans of glue on display. "You lot don't see this blazon of scene in Singapore everywhere," he said. "They are all very old people who have been here for many decades doing this trade."
There are fewer cobblers these days, just those who are still there have made this space their second home.
HAI SENG PORCELAIN
Tucked backside the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple on Sago Lane is Hai Seng Porcelain. This unassuming homeware store has been in existence since the 1970s. Originally a provision shop, its owner decided to carry household goods - including wooden clogs, enamel homeware and more - in the 1980s.
Only a few streets away from Chinatown's more iconic spots, Hai Seng is a hidden gem known to those in the area, and a few home chefs looking for authentic onetime-school crockery.
YIP YEW CHONG'South MURALS
Chinatown is non just the place Mr Yip grew up in; the neighbourhood has get his canvas on which he puts down his memories on. Looking at his many signature murals across Chinatown, it is hard to believe he was never formally trained in art.
His favourite piece is chosen My Chinatown Home and y'all can discover it at 30 Smith Street. It depicts his old dwelling in Sago Lane, where he lived for more than fourteen years, before it was torn downwardly. It is a tribute to the shophouses the housed families like his before they were moved to mod public housing nearby.
24TH STOREY AT CHINATOWN Complex
Later his dwelling in Sago Lane was torn down, Mr Yip'south family moved to an apartment in a higher place Chinatown Complex Food Center where they were treated to an unfettered view of the sea. On clear days, they could even see neighbours Malaysia on the horizon.
READ | My childhood Chinatown: How I lived with prostitutes, gangs, corpses
From this vantage point, he also witnessed the development of Chinatown and the surrounding central concern commune.
The One Raffles Place edifice, for instance, was ane he saw built from the beginning.
"I remember waking up in the early morning, having breakfast in the living room, and just looking at it every day, how the building got taller and taller," he recalled.
And to him, the sweeping view of today's Chinatown is reflective of Singapore's growth and development.
"You accept the quondam, you have the new. It's the whole Singapore story," said Mr Yip.
DUXTON Plainly PARK
Behind the row of hip shophouses, bars, boutique hotels and Michelin Guide restaurants on Keong Saik Road is the quiet strip of greenery that is Duxton Plain Park.
Or perhaps not so serenity, with an entire brood of jungle fowl, some more argumentative than others - we heard these two roosters before nosotros saw them!
Now it'southward your turn. We'd like you to tell us what'due south Up Your Aisle. What is it that makes your neighbourhood unique? What are the places visitors may not notice at first glance, but are a unique and intrinsic part of the estate you know and dearest?
Write to us at digitalnews [at] mediacorp.com.sg or message united states of america on Instagram or Facebook. Tell us nearly some of your favourite spots or nigh a person who embodies the spirit of the area.
We look forward to hearing from yous!
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/singapore-chinatown-up-your-alley-hidden-gems-196806
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