In my last post I mentioned that the Japanese and Chinese Gardens exist as a result of city planning decisions – that in the industrial wastes that would eventually occupy the Jurong swamps, Singapore’s government realized that people needed a place to go for greenery, tranquility, and recreation. Naturally, since this is Singapore, we could […]
We had a tour of the Japanese Gardens this morning, and I learned a lot, at long last, about what the Japanese garden aesthetic idea is – why there are rivers of gravel, for instance, and why rocks are parked all over them. Singapore’s Japanese and Chinese gardens were planned in the 1960s and built […]
The Singapore Unitarians, that small but doughty band, met for a tour of the Chinese and Japanese gardens this morning. I have lots of pictures of statues that I’ll post separately, but here were some highlights: This is the big Confucius statue towards the southern end of the garden, complete with a couple of dragon-y […]
This structure is a the apex of Fort Canning Hill. I like it, especially the big bronze knobs on the door and the arched shape. It looks like a link to Portuguese or Spanish architecture, perhaps an antique fort entrance. Turns out it’s a garage.
There are a lot of sculptures in Singapore’s public areas, and I thought I’d post pictures of them. Let’s start with the newest in the fruit series, the Giant Nutmeg outside the new ION shopping center. It’s pretty accurate: stem, nutmeg, coating of mace, and outer fruit, which you can buy in pickled form in […]
This morning I had a little extra time to walk through the garden and take some pictures. They’re not an exhaustive show of all the kinds of plants in the garden, but might give you an idea of what Chinese gardening aesthetics can do with a lot of space and a tropical rainforest climate. Here’s […]
As part of the government effort to ensure survival of the species, or at least of the well-educated Chinese Singaporean portion of it, the National Institute of Education was relocated to Nanyang Technological University 13 years ago. A huge new campus was built for NIE, located in an old durian orchard just across the street […]
I know I’ve mentioned the hideous fence that’s going up around the campus to protect the YOG contestants – or maybe keep them from running amok in the local jungle. So since I complain about it, I just thought I’d show you how it looks: The view without the fence: Two views of the same […]
This morning I lucked out and saw wild pigs: a mother and adolescent! They were walking along the ugly new fence that now separates the NTU campus from the military training jungle. I think the fence is there to protect the Youth Olympic Games kids from rampaging Singapore servicemen. (Although I also saw about 50 […]
I think I mentioned before that this is a great walk – 13-15 kilometers of water, plants, a few animals, and a bit of peace and quiet. Of course we last did this hike during Chinese New Year, and there were some guys having a “Good New Year Yell:” they took turns standing at one […]