Hui Shan

Katong Joochiat is not a place I visit often. I can say that throughout my near 20 years of life in Singapore, I have visited this place not more than 10 times. i wasn't really looking forward to visiting this place at first. but as we embarked on our journey through this culture-rich place, i became more and more interested in discovering this area. before this heritage trail, all i knew about Katong was laksa, rich people's house and for Joo chiat, only the infamous neighbourhood dispute. as we traveled through the different stations, we discovered more than just laksa (of course, it is still part of the trail). we saw interesting looking (and very beautiful) houses, different religious places, and of course, the president's house!

The beautiful architecture of the old houses showed the rich culture local natives (Peranakans) had and made me realized that Singapore may not be such a 'young' country afterall. i also had a thought: did the locals felt intruded by the immigrants from many countries such as china just like many of us may now feel? in a way, our ancestors (at least mine) were not very different from the immigrants in Singapore now. They came here looking for opportunities, hoping to get a better life. i guess maybe we Singaporeans can try putting ourselves in the immigrants shoes for a while.

For part of the trail, we visited a few religious places such as churches, Indian and Chinese temple and a mosque. this may not seem interesting to many Singaporeans but if we were to look at this from a foreigner's perspective, it is actually quite incredible. in the area where I stay, boon lay, there is a church which is in between a Chinese temple and a Hindu temple. How many countries in the world have such a scenario? some countries don't even have religious harmony. I realised how blessed i am to live here, where my religious views are not judged and will most probably not cause me to get into conflict. this is truly a blessing in my life.

After visiting and exploring Katong Joo chiat, I became more interested in this area and I feel that I can appreciate our unique culture more whenever I get to tell it to someone else (even my family members) who wants to find out more about it, and also, when watching shows that tells about it (such as The Little Nonya). I feel really glad to have had such a fruitful trip and not having to go through it alone!