Chinatown

Chinatown is where Singapore's Chinese immigrant history is preserved in five streets of restored shophouses, temples, and hawker centres — and where the tension between heritage preservation and tourist commerce plays out in real time. The district was designated by Stamford Raffles in 1822 as the Chinese quarter of his planned town, and the two-storey shophouses lining Pagoda Street, Trengganu Street, and Smith Street have been meticulously restored to their original colonial appearance while housing a mix of traditional businesses and tourist shops.

The food is the real draw. The Chinatown Complex Food Centre, at the corner of Smith and Sago streets, is the largest hawker centre in the world — over 260 stalls across two floors serving every variety of Chinese, Malay, Indian, and fusion cuisine that Singapore has developed over two centuries of multicultural cooking. Stall prices start at S$3 for a plate of chicken rice or char kway teow, and the quality at the best stalls rivals restaurants charging ten times more. Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice & Noodle here became the cheapest Michelin-starred meal in the world when it received its star in 2016.

Beyond the food, Chinatown contains some of Singapore's most significant religious sites. The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, a massive Tang-dynasty-style structure built in 2007, dominates the southern end of the district. The Sri Mariamman Temple — Singapore's oldest Hindu temple, built in 1827 — sits incongruously in the middle of Chinatown, a reminder that Singapore's ethnic districts have never been as segregated as the colonial planners intended.