Most major cities have their Chinatowns but Singapore also has a Indiantown or better a “Little India”.
It is a very colorful and lively area with lot of eateries and cheap hotels for backpackers. It’s a nice way to get a feeling of the indian culture and live because there are some famous temples there which you can visit. One is the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple.
Of course there is also a great variety of shops, especially for souveniers, jewelery and clothing.
The word “chingay” is from the Hokkien dialect, meaning “the art of masquerade”. Hokkien dialects are spoken in southern Taiwan and by many overseas Chinese throughout Southeast Asia.
The festival began as a neighbourhood parade with only Chinese elements in 1973. Today, the Chingay Parade has evolved to be the grandest street and floats parade in Asia, showcasing the rich, vibrant multi-culturalism of Singapore and exciting cultures all over the world.
The parade takes place on two evenings next to the Singapore flyer. I went there twice to catch some shots of the diverse people and costumes. Although there were thousands of people the festival and atmosphere was without stress and squeezing crowds. This is one – beside many others – of the positive aspects I noticed in Asian countries.
Botanic Gardens, Orchad Road and Chingay 2011, Singapore at EveryTrail
The Marina Bay Sands is a luxury hotel with 2500 rooms and suites. It includes a SkyPark at the top of the three towers with an 150 meter infinity swimming pool, the world’s largest outdoor pool at 200-meter height.
It is one of the most complex structure ever built with distinctive sloping towers as steep as 26 degrees by internationally acclaimed architect Moshe Safdie. If you are interested watch the 10 minute video of Moshe Safdie which was part of the competition submission to the government of Singapore.
And I was not the only photographer that night…
The SkyPark is open to the public and from there you have a 360 degrees view of Singapore. Unfortunately the infinity pool is for hotel guests only. However the rooms are not that expensive as you might think. A night in a double room is about 240 euros.
One day of our ten day trip to Shanghai we spent at the Expo.
Below you can see the queue in front of the small Liechtenstein Pavilion. For the bigger Pavilions, like the german or the UK , the waiting time was between 4 and 5 hours!
UK Pavilion
The Chinese Pavilion was one of the biggest.
It was so hot on that day, that some places had installed water steams coming out of the ground. It was a nice cooling.
You can find some of the newest technologies …
We were lucky to enjoy the great live performance of “Pet Conspiracy” in the Mao Livehouse in Shanghai. In the first row it was perfect to take some nice pictures…
Delicious food in the streets of Běijīng
Apple Shop and giant iPhones
Whats for dinner ?
If in doubt,…
Built between 1406 and 1420 during the Ming dynasty, the Forbidden City is also called the Purple Forbidden City, or Gugong Museum in Chinese.
Occupying a rectangular area of more than 720,000 square meters, the Forbidden City was the imperial home of 24 emperors of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. From their throne in the Forbidden City, they governed the country by holding court sessions with their ministers, issuing imperial edicts and initiating military expeditions.
The Forbidden City is one of the largest and best-preserved palace complexes in the world. There are over a million rare and valuable objects in the Gugong Museum.
Yuyuan Garden is a famous classical garden located in Anren Jie, Shanghai. The garden was finished in 1577 by a government officer of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) named Pan Yunduan. Yu in Chinese means pleasing and satisfying, and this garden was specially built for Pan’s parents as a place for them to enjoy a tranquil and happy time in their old age.
Built in a style that Suzhou gardens often take, Yuyuan garden is characterized by an exquisite layout, beautiful scenery and artistic architecture. Each pavilion, hall, stone and stream in the garden can express the quintessence of South China landscape design from Ming and Qing dynasties.
There were so many people you wouldn’t believe..so I made this video:
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