Friday, March 23, 2012

Singapore River- Past and Present

Past
The Singapore River was where the old Port of SIngapore was, originally, as i twas sheltered naturally by the islands at the south. The city of Singapore grew around the Singapore river mouth, and it became the city of trade, commerce and finance.
Present
It is now part of the Marina Reservoir to create a new reservoir of freshwater. It currently empties into Marina Bay, instead of the sea. The port of Singapore was shifted to the west side of the island.

Ending Point-Asian Civilisation Museum

The Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM, Chinese: 亚洲文明博物馆) is an institution which forms a part of the three museums of the National Museum of Singapore. It is one of the pioneering museums in the region to specialise in pan-Asian cultures and civilisations. The museum specialises in the material history of China, Southeast Asia, South Asia and West Asia, from which the diverse ethnic groups of Singapore trace their ancestry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Civilisations_Museum

On the Way- Raffles' Landing Site

The Raffles' Landing Site is the location where tradition holds that Sir Stamford Raffles landed in on 29 January 1819. The site is located at Boat Quay within the Civic District, in the Downtown Core of the Central Area, Singapore's central business district.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raffles'_Landing_Site

On the Way- Parliament House

The Parliament House of Singapore is a public building and cultural landmark and houses the Parliament of Singapore. It is located in the Civic District of the Downtown Core within Singapore's central business district (the Central Area). Within its vicinity is Raffles Place, which lies across it from the Singapore River, and the Supreme Court's building across the road. The building was designed to represent a contemporary architectural expression of stateliness and authority. The prism-shaped top, designed by the late former president Ong Teng Cheong, was similarly a modernist take on the traditional dome.

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament_House,_Singapore

Starting Point-Coleman Bridge

In 1840, a brick bridge joining Old Bridge Road and Hill Street over the Singapore River was constructed and called Coleman Bridge. The bridge had nine arches, and was designed by and named after George Drumgoole Coleman(1795–1844), an Irish Architect and Singapore's first architect. It was referred to as the New Bridge, lending its name to the road on its southern end — New Bridge Road.

In 1865, the brick bridge was replaced by one made of timber but was not well constructed. It cost about Straits $10,000 and was built by the government. In 1886, an iron bridge was built to replace the wooden one. This iron bridge was considered one of the most attractive spanning the Singapore River. It stood for about a century, but was unable to cope with the increasingly heavy traffic flow between New Bridge Road and Hill Street.

The iron bridge was finally demolished in 1986 and replaced with the present concrete bridge. However, several features of the iron bridge such as the decorative lamp posts and iron railings were incorporated into the current structure, in recognition of its historical significance.

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coleman_Bridge,_Singapore

Artifacts of the Museum

Mercury Jars

Mercury Jars were probably used during and after the 14th century to store mercury for either medicinal purposes or to extract gold. Interestingly, several intact mercury jars were found in May 2002 during excavations at the adjacent Old Parliament House raising the possibility that they had been buried as religious or ceremonial items.










Blue-and-white porcelain

Underglaze blue decoration was an innovation of the Tang Dynasty. However it was not until the Yuan Dynasty that large numbers of blue-and-white waters made in Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province were exported to Southeast Asia, India and the Middle East. While large pieces of this early blue-and-white have been recovered in Indonesia, Thailand and elsewhere in SOutheast Asia, the bulk of the export wares were small vessels and miniature, ranging in quality from rough to quite fine, and often found in burial contexts.











Shufu (Whiteware)

Shufu, named after its molded mark was produced in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province during the Yuan Dynasty. Shufu glaze is similar to the blue-and-white porcelain - the two wares are technically related.

Map of our route along Singapore River