ORCHARD ROAD SINGAPORE

SHOPPERS PARADISE

Orchard Road.  This place used to be a plantations area until the early 19th century, when a mysterious disease wiped out the nutmeg plantations here. Because the area is surrounded by low grounds floods were also common occurrance here.

In the 1970s, buildings such as CK Tangs, Plaza Singapura and the Mandarin Hotel started to appear and this led the way for the emergence of more entertainment and shopping complex. Brick by brick and block by block, towers of steel and glass began to fill the area which was once filled with muds and made Orchard Road what it is today a world famous shopping haven.

One of the oldest shopping centers is Tanglin Shopping Centre, located near the start of Orchard Road. Located not far from Regent Hotel, Tanglin Shopping Centre has some unique shops that sells  varieties of products such as embroidered beads, clothing, accessories, furniture and antiques, and for the arts and crafts a gallery, Asia Ancient Gallery can also be found here.

A shopping experience completely new awaits you at ION Orchard, with an area of ​​over 54,000 square meters of shopping space that climbs over eight floors. The ground floor provides luxury brands such as Prada, Ermenegildo Zegna and Louis Vuitton, while the basement floor is always filled with visitors from all walks of life - from students and employees, all of them lured by a wide range of popular brands such as Topshop, Fred Perry and Armani Exchange.

Another new shopping area is Orchard Central. It's Spanish interior gives a feeling of coziness, with balconies and bars dotted with colorful flowers such as bougainvillea. You can also dine at the open roof garden with views of the enchanting city, while admiring the Via Ferrata Wall for wall climbing sport in the world's highest indoor space and view art works of famous artists.

313 @ Somerset is also a new addition to the shopping belt in Orchard Road. This place has a main store Forever 21, which is the largest in Singapore, with a total area of ​​four floors.

With so many different malls that sell all kinds of goods - from clothing and ethnic items to jewelry and furniture, Orchard Road offers much more than you can imagine. Not surprisingly, Singapore is known as a shopping paradise.

To be continued....

MERLION SINGAPORE

SINGAPORE MERLION - WELCOME TO SINGAPORE

The Merlion an icon of Singapore to the rest of world was first designed by Singapore Tourist Promotion Board in 1964. It is a statue of a body of a fish with head of a lion, or singa in malay, resting on a stone platform overlooking the waves spouting out water from it's mouth.

This singapore lion statue was designed by Mr. Fraser Brunner who was a curator for the Van Kleef Aquarium and also one of the member of the souvenir committee.  Quickly,  the Merlion became singapore's icon and emblem for  this tiny lion city island of south east asia.

Uninformed, many might associate the existence of mystical figure in the ancient singapore folklore just like mermaid or ikan duyung in malay.  But real fact is, it is just a representation of the history of the founding of Singapore by a prince of Palembang, Sang Nila Utama.  Palembang is situated in the island of Sumatra, Indonesia in the 11 AD.  Singapore called Temasek (a sanskrit word which means sea) until this Palembang prince saw a lion while hunting in the island and renamed it Singapura or translated in english as Lion City.

While for the merlion statue itself, the head of the lion represents the sighting of lion and body and tail of the fish represent the sea. In short, merlion symbomlizes lion city surrounded by the sea.

Measuring 8.6 meters high and weighing 70 tonnes, the Merlion statue was built from cement by a renounce late Singapore craftsman Mr.Lim Nang Seng  .  Another Merlion statue, smaller one which measures 2 meters high and weighs three tones, was also built by Mr. Lim. The body was also made of cement while the skin from porcelain plates and eyes from small red teacups.

The first location for the Merlion and her cub, was originally located in front of the Singapore River, just across from the Elizabeth Walk,120 meters from their present location. The area is known as the Merlion Park.  This soon became a popular tourist attraction, and became one of the most famous places in cities of the world.  Then Singapore's Prime Minister, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, inaugurated the installation ceremony of the Merlion on 15 September 1972. A bronze inscription serve to immortalize the happy event with the inscriptions, "The Merlion was established to symbolize a welcome gesture to everyone who is visiting Singapore."

Today, the Merlion attracts more than one million visitors each year.  Generally they came to the Merlion Park to take photographs of this world famous icon at her new home, in addition to the One Fullerton.

Location of the new Merlion Statue is in adjacent to the One Fullerton, a newly built garden covering an area of 2,500 square meters. At One Fullerton, there are a variety of restaurants, lounges and dance clubs located on the river bank.

This area also has a cape with patio seating and a deck to watch that could hold to the capacity of 300 people and a boat landing place so that visitors can descend from the taxi boats. This deck gives a panoramic view of the Merlion is the best for photographers, with the background of the city skyline and the scenic Marina Bay.  Among this skyliners includes landmarks like The Fullerton Singapore and Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay.

Around approximately 28 meters behind the Merlion, stands the Merlion Cub which is also widely known as Sentosa Merlion or Merlion Sentosa. Both the Merlion and the Sentosa Merlion are installed with water pumping system for them to spout water into the sea throughout the day and night as an icon of Singapore welcoming  every visitor to travel to Singapore.