Singapore History & Culture Walk

Discover how modern Singapore began at the Singapore River and see how we live and conserve our heritage.

From our starting point at Empress Place (now the Asian Civilizations Museum), we will proceed to the landing site of Sir Stamford Raffles, founder of modern Singapore in 1819. We head south across the Singapore River to Chinatown one of the first ethnic quarters, visiting temples along Telok Ayer (Malay for Water Bay) the ancient coastline before land reclamation filled it and allowed the rise of the present financial district. We will then head to the City Gallery to see the city model of modern Singapore. Then we will gaze at Sri Mariaman, a Hindu temple in the heart of Chinatown beside a mosque, before ending at Chinatown Complex where locals live, work and play. There, I will also point out some of Singapore’s world famous hawker food from around 200 hawker stalls in the complex, part of the hawker culture that made the UNESCO intangible heritage list in 2020.