Welcome to Singapore, an island country in Southeast Asia, lying just one degree north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. Besides the main island there are more than 60 smaller islands and islets. In its early history it was a trading port known as Temasek. Its modern era began in 1819, when Stamford Raffles set up a British trading post here, and Singapore became an independent country in 1965. Though it has no natural resources, it grew rapidly into one of the Four Asian Tigers. It has four official languages: English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil. Let's explore.
Marina Bay Sands
Photo: This Photo was taken by Supanut Arunoprayote . Feel free to use any of my images · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia CommonsIn front of you, three towers rise above Marina Bay, joined at the top by what looks like a great ship. This is Marina Bay Sands, designed by Moshe Safdie and opened in 2010. On top sits the Sands SkyPark, a skyway 340 metres long with a 150-metre infinity pool. It rests on the world's largest public cantilevered platform, which juts out 66.5 metres beyond the north tower. Below, the resort holds a hotel with 1,850 rooms, a shopping mall, a theatre and a casino, and even the world's first floating Apple store.
Gardens by the Bay
Photo: Shiny Things . · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia CommonsWelcome to Gardens by the Bay, an urban park of 105 hectares beside the Marina Reservoir. It is made up of three waterfront gardens, and the largest, Bay South Garden, covers 54 hectares. Step inside its Flower Dome, the largest glass greenhouse in the world. The park was part of a national plan to turn Singapore from a Garden City into a City in a Garden, raising the quality of life with more greenery. It has become one of the country's national icons, with over 50 million visitors by 2018.
Merlion
Photo: Unwicked · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia CommonsMeet the Merlion, the official mascot of Singapore, a mythical creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish. Its name joins mer, meaning the sea, with lion. The fish body recalls Singapore's beginnings as a fishing village called Temasek, which means sea town in Javanese, while the lion's head stands for the name Singapura, the lion city. Here is a surprise: the Merlion began as the tourism board logo, first used in 1964, designed by Alec Fraser-Brunner, the curator of an aquarium.
Singapore Botanic Gardens
Photo: Velela · Public domain · Wikimedia CommonsStep into the Singapore Botanic Gardens, at the edge of the Orchard Road shopping district. It is the only tropical garden honoured as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Founded here in 1859, it played a pivotal role in the region's rubber boom: its first scientific director, Henry Nicholas Ridley, perfected a technique for extracting rubber that is still used. Inside, the National Orchid Garden holds the largest orchid collection, and its finest hybrids are named after visiting heads of state and celebrities in what Singapore calls orchid diplomacy.
Sentosa
Photo: Chensiyuan · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia CommonsJust off the southern coast lies Sentosa, an island devoted to recreation. Its past was quite different: it was once a British military base and later a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp, before it was renamed Sentosa in the 1970s and became a popular resort. Today it offers a sheltered beach 2.5 kilometres long, a cable car network, Fort Siloso, and the Universal Studios Singapore theme park. In 2018 it made world headlines, hosting the first-ever meeting between the leaders of North Korea and the United States. A fun fact: Sentosa is more than twice the size of Monaco.
Raffles Hotel
Photo: Anthere · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia CommonsAt 1 Beach Road stands Raffles Hotel, a historic luxury hotel named after Stamford Raffles, the founder of modern Singapore. It was opened on 1 December 1887 by the Sarkies Brothers, Armenian hoteliers, with just ten rooms. Before that, the building had been a private beach house from the early 1830s, then Emerson's Hotel, and for a time a boarding house. In 1987 it was declared a national monument.
Singapore Flyer
Photo: DvTor8303 · CC0 · Wikimedia CommonsLook up at the Singapore Flyer, a giant observation wheel that opened on 15 April 2008. It stands 165 metres tall, and when it was completed it was the tallest Ferris wheel in the world, until a wheel in Las Vegas beat it in 2014 by just 2.6 metres. Step into one of its 28 air-conditioned capsules, each holding up to 28 passengers, and enjoy the slow ride over the city. The Flyer has appeared in many films and other media that feature Singapore.
ArtScience Museum
Photo: Basile Morin · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia CommonsBeside Marina Bay Sands sits the ArtScience Museum, a building said to recall a lotus flower. Designed by Moshe Safdie, it rests on a round base with ten extensions called fingers, each one housing gallery spaces with skylights. Las Vegas Sands chairman Sheldon Adelson called it the Welcoming Hand of Singapore. Opened on 17 February 2011, it is the largest private museum in Singapore, with exhibitions that blend art, science, culture and technology.
Lomakuume
