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Singapore is a cosmopolitan city- with Chinese opera, feng shui and chopsticks existing harmoniously alongside saris and Hindu temples. A melting pot of cultures, Singapore is Asia’s richest, most dazzling and smallest country. This Garden city has a bustling and pulsating nightlife, fantastic shopping, scrupulously clean surroundings and some of the best food you’ll ever taste.

Everything goes towards making Singapore an extremely interesting country- tiny compared to giants like China and India, but one of Asia’s most delightfully attractive tourist destinations.So travel to Singapore to discover this very interesting Asian city.

The Night safari located in Singapore was the first night zoo in the world

Singaporeans are known to be cell phone geeks with 8 in every 10 people owning a cell phone!

The largest fountain in the world – the Fountain of Wealth as it is called, is in Suntec City Singapore

The national language of Singapore is not Chinese or English(those are the official languages)as one may think - it is Malay. The National Anthem is in Malay and it is also the language in which commands are given in the military – yet only 15% of Singaporeans speak Malay!

Don't ask us why, but the majority of Singaporeans are born in the month of October!

Considering the fact that Singapore is one of the smallest countries in the world spread over just 682.7 square kms, it has a lot of roads – over 3,000 kilometres of roads and in terms of distance it could cover the distance between Hong Kong and Singapore

Narcotics Alert! Remember that possession of narcotics (heroin, morphine, cocaine etc) is tantamount to trafficking and is a serious crime- it can get you up to 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine of $20,000, or both.

Historically Speaking

Singapore, lying as it is in the midst of present-day Malaysia (of which it was a part till 1965), became like Malaysia, an important centre of trade between the East and the West during the 1300s.

One of the first mentions of Singapore is in the annals of Chinese history dating back to the third century, which referred to Singapore as 'Pu-luo-chung’, meaning 'The Island at the tip of the Peninsula’. By the seventh century, Singapore (then known as 'Temasek’) was a trading outpost of the Malayan Buddhist Empire on Sumatra. The name 'Temasek', incidentally means 'sea town’, and it was by this name that Singapore came to be known till the 13th century, when it acquired its present name by a rather interesting incident which occurred on the island. At the time, a Sumatran prince Sang Nila Utama, landed on the island and saw what he thought was a lion (probably in reality a tiger), and named the place 'Singapura’- Lion City, the Sanskrit word for lion being 'singa’.

Singapore, as we know it, came into being thanks to a British civil servant, Sir Stamford Raffles, who first hit upon the idea of taking advantage of the strategic location of this obscure fishing village. In the early 1800s, the Dutch already had a considerable influence in the Straits of Malacca; the British were searching for a suitable place to set up a trading post. Sir Stamford Raffles, combing the area, came upon Singapore and after signing an agreement with the Sultan of Johor (whose dominion it was), laid the foundations of modern Singapore here in 1819. Singapore became a part of Malaysia and remained under the rule of the British till the independence of Malaysia. In 1965, Singapore itself became independent, and under the leadership of Lee Kuan Yew, quickly built up a formidable administrative structure and an enviably stable economy - factors which have gone towards making it one of South Asia’s most admired countries today.

Habitat

Situated in South East Asia, Singapore consists of the main Singapore Island and 58 smaller islands, lying between Malaysia and Indonesia. Its total land area is 637.5 sq km, with Singapore City situated around the banks of the Singapore River, in the southern part of Singapore Island.

Despite the fact that Singapore is a city, it’s not all glass and concrete. The country launched it’s green policy in 1967 and the administration went all out to make the city as verdant as possible. The Parks and Recreation Department now looks after and maintains more than 4868 hectares of greenery within Singapore- a fairly respectable figure. 164 of these make up the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in the very heart of the city.

Nearly all of Singapore is lowland, which rises to a central plateau, containing a water catchment area. Singapore’s highest point at 164m is within the Bukit Timah Reserve. However, waste disposal, industrial pollution and air pollution from Indonesian forest fires continue to pose problems for Singapore.

Singapore is not known as the Garden City for nothing: the city has a lot of green areas, the most well known being the 164 hectares of forest which comprise the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. Bukit Timah is one of the only two rainforests (in the world) within city limits, and it has a staggeringly large variety of plants and trees- more in fact, than in all of North America. It’s got some interesting wildlife too- macaques, mouse deer, lemurs, pangolins and a variety of birds.

In addition to Bukit Timah (which, incidentally, means 'Tin Hill’ – a somewhat misleading name which might bring to mind visions of dirty tin mines), there are parks and zoos with good collections of flora and fauna, mainly tropical in nature. Best known among these are the Jurong Bird Park, the Jurong Reptile Park, the Singapore Zoological Gardens and Underwater World. So if you have a passion for flowers, make it a point to visit the National Orchid Garden, the Singapore Botanic Gardens, and the Sungei Buloh Nature Park- all a visual treat for anyone who’s keen on nature.