Singapore is a city-state in Southeast Asia. Founded as a British trading colony in 1819, since independence it has become one of the world's most prosperous countries and sports the world's busiest port. Combining the skyscrapers and subways of a modern, affluent city with a medley of Chinese, Malay and Indian influences and a tropical climate, with tasty food, good shopping and a vibrant nightlife scene, this Garden City makes a great stopover or springboard into the region.
Districts
Singapore is a small country on a small island, but with just over five million people it is a fairly crowded city and in fact second only to Monaco as the world's most densely populated country. The center of the city — consisting roughly of Orchard Road, the Riverside and a chunk of Chinatown — is known in acronym-loving Singapore as the CBD (Central Business District).
* Riverside (Civic District) >>> Singapore's colonial core, with museums, statues and theaters, not to mention restaurants, bars and clubs.
* Orchard Road >>> Miles and miles of shopping malls.
* Marina Bay >>> The newest bit of Singapore, dominated by the enormous Marina Bay Sands casino complex.
* Bugis and Kampong Glam >>> Bugis and Kampong Glam are Singapore's old Malay district, now largely taken over by shopping.
* Chinatown >>> The area originally designated for Chinese settlement by Raffles, now a Chinese heritage area popular with tourists.
* Little India >>> A piece of India to the north of the city core.
* Balestier, Newton, Novena and Toa Payoh >>> Budget accommodations and Burmese temples within striking distance of the center.
* North and West >>> The northern and western parts of the island, also known as Woodlands and Jurong respectively, form Singapore's residential and industrial hinterlands.
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East Coast >>> The largely residential eastern part of the island contains Changi Airport, miles and miles of beach and many famous eateries. Also covers Geylang Serai, the true home of Singapore's Malays.
* Sentosa >>> A separate island once a military fort developed into a resort, Sentosa is the closest that Singapore gets to Disneyland, now with a dash of gambling and Universal Studios thrown in.
Addresses
In the centre Singapore's addressing system is fairly normal ("17 Orchard Rd" etc), but the new housing developments on the outskirts may appear more intimidating: a typical address might be "Blk 505 Jurong West St 51 #01-186". Here "Blk 505" is the housing block number, "Jurong West St 51" is the street name, and "#01-186" means floor 1, unit, stall or shop 186. The first digit of both housing block and street number is the neighborhood's number (in this case 5), making it easier to narrow down the right location. There are also 6-digit postal codes, which - considering the small size of the island - generally correspond to exactly one building. For example, "Blk 9 Bedok South Ave 2" is "Singapore 460009". Finally, you will also encounter Malay terms in addresses: the most common are Jalan (Jln) for "Road", Lorong (Lor) for "Lane", Bukit (Bt) for "Hill" and Kampong (Kg) for "Village".
People
Singapore prides itself on being a multi-racial country, and has a diverse culture despite its small size. The largest group are the Chinese, who form about 75% of the population. Amongst the Chinese, Hokkien speakers form the majority, while Teochew and Cantonese speakers round out the top three. Other notable "dialect" groups among the Chinese include the Hakkas, Hainanese and Foochows. The Malays, who are comprised of Singapore's original inhabitants as well as migrants from present day Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, form about 14% of the population, while Indians form about 9% of the population. Among the Indians, Tamils form the largest group by far, though there are also a significant numbers of speakers of other Indian languages such as Hindi, Malayalam and Punjabi. The remainder are a mix of many other cultures, most notably the Eurasians who are of mixed European and Asian descent, and also a handful of Burmese, Japanese, Thais and many others. Slighty over one-third of Singapore's residents are not citizens.
Currency
The currency of Singapore is the Singapore dollar, represented by the symbol S$ or the ISO abbreviation SGD. The central bank is the Monetary Authority of Singapore, responsible for issuing currency. Singapore established the Board of Commissioners of Currency in 1967 and issued its first coins and notes.The Singapore dollar was exchangeable at par with the Malaysian ringgit until 1973.Interchangeability with the Brunei dollar is still maintained.On 27 June 2007, to commemorate 40 years of currency agreement with Brunei, a commemorative S$20 note was launched; the back is identical to the Bruneian $20 note launched concurrently.
Languages
Languages of Singapore
See also: Singapore English and Singlish
The Singapore government recognises four official languages: English, Malay, Chinese (Mandarin), and Tamil.
English is the most dominant language in Singapore,unlike neighbouring countries Malaysia and Indonesia, where Malay is the dominant language.The forms of English spoken in Singapore range from Standard English to an English-based creole known as Singlish. Amongst Singaporeans, English has the largest number of speakers. This is followed by Mandarin Chinese, Malay and Tamil.The spelling and vocabulary used are primarily those of British English,with a few exceptions, such as the common use of the American "pants" for the British "trousers".The use of English became widespread in Singapore after 1965 when it was implemented as a first language medium in the education system.At school, children are required to learn English and one of the three other official languages as a mother tongue.
Malay is the national language for symbolic and historical reasons,and is generally spoken by Singapore's Malay community. The Malay language is used in the national anthem "Majulah Singapura" and printing of coins. However, around 85% of Singaporeans do not speak Malay.
Mandarin Chinese is also spoken widely in Singapore. Mandarin has spread largely as a result of government-sponsored public campaigns and efforts to support its adoption and use over other Chinese languages.
Tamil is spoken by about 60% of Singapore's Indian community or 5% of all Singaporeans. Indian languages such as Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi are also spoken by a small group of Singaporean Indians in Singapore.
Religion
Buddhism is the dominant religion in Singapore, with 42.5% of the resident population declaring themselves as adherents at the most recent census. One will be able to find monasteries and Dharma centres from all three major traditions of Buddhism in Singapore: Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana. Most Buddhists in Singapore are Chinese and are of the Mahayana tradition. 42.5% of the population of Singapore is Buddhist.
Chinese Mahayana is the most predominant form of Buddhism in Singapore with missionaries from Taiwan and China for several decades. However, Thailand's Theravada Buddhism has seen growing popularity amongst the people (not confining to the Chinese) in the past decade. Soka Gakkai International, a Japanese Buddhist organization, is practised by many people, in Singapore, but by mostly those of Chinese descent. Tibetan Buddhism is also making a slow inroad into the country in recent years.
Education
Education in Singapore
English is the medium of instruction in all Singaporean schools.
Students attend primary school at age seven and it lasts for six years, at the end of which they sit for the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE). There are four subjects in primary school - English, Mathematics, Science and Mother Tongue language. All subjects are taught and examined in English except for the "Mother Tongue language" which is taught and examined in either Malay, Mandarin (Chinese) or Tamil. While "Mother Tongue" generally refers to the first language internationally, in Singapore's education system, it is used to refer to the second or extra language as English is the first language. Public primary schools do not charge school fees, however, there might be nominal miscellaneous fees.
After primary school, students typically attend secondary school for four to five years. There is a myriad of subjects offered in secondary schools, including English, mother tongue language, geography, history, elementary mathematics, advanced mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology, French, and Japanese.
The average student studies seven to eight subjects but it is relatively common for students to take more than eight subjects. Once again, all subjects in secondary school are taught and examined in English except for the "Mother Tongue language" which is taught and examined in either Malay, Mandarin or Tamil. At the end of secondary school, students sit for the Singapore-Cambridge GCE 'O' Level examination and their results determine the kind of post-secondary education routes they can pursue. School fees in most public secondary schools are nominal, they come up to around 5 SGD after subsidies. However, there are independent secondary schools that charge up to a few hundred dollars in school fees each month.
Not all students enrol into secondary schools. There are many who attend vocational education institutes such as the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) where they graduate with a vocational certificate. Others attend the Singapore Sports School or a school with Integrated Programme where they bypass the Singapore-Cambridge GCE 'O' Level altogether.
After the O levels examinations, at around sixteen years of age, students normally enrol into a Junior College, Centralised Institute or Polytechnic. Programmes in Junior Colleges and Centralised Institutes lead to the GCE A levels examinations after two or three years.
There are five polytechnics in Singapore. Singapore Polytechnic, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Temasek Polytechnic, Nanyang Polytechnic and Republic Polytechnic. Unlike similarly named institutions in many other countries, polytechnics in Singapore do not award degrees. Students in polytechnics graduate with a diploma at the end of three years.
There are five public universities in Singapore - National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Management University, Singapore University of Technology and Design and the Singapore Institute of Technology. The government has been building more public universities in the past few decades as it hopes to provide higher education for 30% of each cohort. Courses in polytechnics and universities are conducted entirely in English.
A plethora of foreign universities also have campuses in Singapore. They include INSEAD, Chicago Business School, New York University, University of Las Vegas, Technische Universität München, ESSEC and many more.
Transport
Ports and aviation
The Port of Singapore with Sentosa island in the background
Singapore is a major international transportation hub in Asia, positioned on many sea and air trade routes.
The Port of Singapore, managed by port operators PSA International and Jurong Port, was the world's second busiest port in 2005 in terms of shipping tonnage handled, at 1.15 billion gross tons, and in terms of containerised traffic, at 23.2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). It is also the world's second busiest in terms of cargo tonnage, coming behind Shanghai with 423 million tons handled. In addition, the Port is the world's busiest for transshipment traffic and the world's biggest ship refuelling centre. A C751B train at Eunos MRT Station on the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system, one of three heavy rail passenger transport lines in Singapore
Singapore is an aviation hub for the Southeast Asian region and a stopover on the Kangaroo route between Australasia and Europe. Singapore Changi Airport has a network of 80 airlines connecting Singapore to 200 cities in 68 countries. It has been rated as one of the best international airports by international travel magazines, including being rated as the world's best airport for the first time in 2006 by Skytrax.
The airport currently has three passenger terminals. There is also a budget terminal, which serves budget carrier Tiger Airways and Cebu Pacific. The national carrier is Singapore Airlines (SIA), the most awarded airline in the world. Singapore Changi Airport was privatized in the year 2009 and is now wholly owned by Changi Airport Group.
Domestic
The domestic transport infrastructure has a well-connected island-wide road transport system which includes a network of expressways. The public road system is served by the nation's bus service and a number of licensed taxi-operating companies. The public bus transport has been the subject of criticism by Singaporeans[citation needed], the majority of whom are dependent on it for their daily commuting.
Since 1987, the heavy rail passenger Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) metro system has been in operation. The MRT system has been further augmented by the Light Rail Transit (LRT) light rail system, and increases accessibility to housing estates. Established in 2001, the EZ-Link system allows contactless smartcards to serve as stored value tickets for use in the public transport systems in Singapore.
