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Chinatown Family Learning Journey (Part 2)
By Chan Hoi Ki on 21/04/2022
This post is a continuation from Part 1 of Chinatown Family Learning Journey. If you have not read Part 1, feel free to give it a read first!
We’ll take a short break from cultural & religious spaces in Chinatown, let’s explore the dining & shopping aspect!
- Chinatown Street Market
(Source: hotels.com)
Chinatown Street Market is exactly what most visitors will expect of Chinatown – rows of stalls selling all sorts of merchandise ranging from homeware, souvenirs, clothing, handicrafts & delicacies. Shopping here itself is an experience and is best done in the late evening as the sun sets with the red lanterns swaying above.
Kids will definitely find an item or two that’s worth their attention due to the large variety of merchandise being sold in the market. Families can expect to be spoilt for choice in purchasing a cheongsam or even toy lanterns.
- Hawker Centres
Chinatown is not shy of lacking hawker centres to choose from. Most can agree that food plays a big part of any given culture. These hawker centres are also a one-stop spot to sample and taste a variety of dishes from the various main Chinese dialects & different races in Singapore.
Hawker culture in Singapore is innate & integral to all Singaporeans where everyone gathers & bonds over the shared love of food that originated from the different immigrant groups in early Singapore. From 1968 to 1986, the Government relocated all the street hawkers into purpose-built hawker centres with proper sanitation and amenities.
- Chinatown Complex (牛车水大厦)
Chinatown Complex is a multi-storey building with the ground storey mainly houses stalls from the wet market & selling sundries whilst the second storey is filled with rows of over 260 hawker stalls. This is Singapore’s largest hawker centre which also houses the first Michelin star hawker stall.
- Hong Lim Market & Food Centre (芳林巴刹与熟食中心)
Hong Lim Market & Food Centre is a 2-storey building that is one of the earliest hawker centres built in Chinatown. This hawker centre is known to contain many hidden delicacy gems and houses over a hundred food stalls.
- People’s Park Food Centre (珍珠坊美食阁)
Last but not least, People’s Park Food Centre can be considered as one of Singapore’s oldest hawker centres with its humble origins starting from 1923 as a hawker shelter. In recent years due to the rising popularity of Mala Xiang Guo and spicy boiled fish, there are more prevalent Sichuan hawker stalls located here. Not to fret – there are also a variety of other Chinese dishes that can fit kids’ & non-spicy eaters’ palates.
We will conclude this series of Chinatown Family Learning Journey in next week’s final Part 3 where we will return to visit other religious places of interest!
Check out our Prep Junior app free for download available from the App Store / Google Playstore until 28 April 2022!
Through an interactive story-based adventure, Prep Junior introduces children to food, various places of interest, and multicultural scenes; using fun and original illustrations that replicate real scenes in Singapore.
Image source: Frans Sellies / Flickr