By air
Changi Airport (SIN), ~20 km
Southeast Asia · Singapore
Chinatown, Singapore
Temples, shophouses and hawker legends
Getting there
Best time to visit
January to February for the New Year lights, February to April for drier days
Don't miss
The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple
Sri Mariamman Temple
The Chinatown Heritage Centre
Thian Hock Keng Temple
Things to do
Hawker centres
The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple
Sri Mariamman Temple
Shophouse cafés
Where to eat
Sources: Photo: kallerna · CC BY-SA 4.0
What to pack
Light clothes, an umbrella
A quieter corner
Ann Siang Hill's shophouse lanes, above the busy streets
Questions travellers ask
When is the best time to visit Chinatown in Singapore?
January to February for the New Year lights, or February to April for drier days.
Which hawker centres should I try in Chinatown?
Maxwell Food Centre and the Chinatown Complex hawker stalls, for chicken rice and char kway teow.
Which temples can I visit in Chinatown?
The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, Sri Mariamman Temple and Thian Hock Keng Temple. The Chinatown Heritage Centre fills in the history.
Is there a quieter corner of Chinatown?
Ann Siang Hill's shophouse lanes, above the busy streets.
About Chinatown
- Island
Where it is
Chinatown is a historic district of central Singapore, south-west of the Singapore River and next to the Central Business District, around streets such as Pagoda Street, Smith Street and Telok Ayer Street.
History
Under Stamford Raffles's town plan of 1822, the land south-west of the Singapore River was set aside for Chinese settlers, and it filled with shophouses, clan associations and temples. Thian Hock Keng, rebuilt in its present form by the Hokkien community in 1839–1842, once faced the sea before land reclamation pushed the shore away, and much of the district has been restored since it became a conservation area in the late 1980s.
People
Chinatown's early settlers came from southern China and spoke Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese and Hakka, which can still be heard among older residents alongside Mandarin and English. Clan associations, traditional medicine halls and crafts such as calligraphy keep the old ways alive, and the district is the heart of Singapore's Chinese New Year celebrations.
Known for
- The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple
- Sri Mariamman, Singapore's oldest Hindu temple
- Thian Hock Keng Temple
- Hawker food at Maxwell and Chinatown Complex
- Chinese New Year street lights
Did you know?
Chinatown's Chinese name, Niu Che Shui, means bullock water-cart, because its water supply was carried by animal-drawn carts in the 19th century; its Malay name, Kreta Ayer, means water cart.
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