About Chinatown

Chinatown, the beginning of Chinese living in Singapore. In the early days, immigrants from China will settle in the current Chinatown areas living in shophouses that are 2, 3 or 4 storeys. Many shophouses are built catering to businesses and trades on the first floor and residences on the upper floors. It is the major place for trade in the early history of Singapore.

Since 80’s, the government realised the need to preserve the history of Chinatown and started regulations to conserved those beautiful shophouses. There are about 1200 conserved shophouses in Chinatown today that is as valuable as a 四合院(Si He Yuan ; four courtyard conserved houses) in Beijing or a 石库门 (Shi Ku Men; Stone Gate) in Shanghai.

Today, Chinatown is part of the CBD (Central Business District) in Singapore and has developed over the years to be a major shopping, commercial, business and residential areas. Many shopping malls, offices, hotels and apartments (both private and public; HDB) are built over the years to complement the heritage conserved shophouses.

Chinatown is only a 5 minutes drive away from the Marina Bay area consisting of the Marina Sands casino and Integrated Resorts.