Ang Mo Kio Town
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| Names | |
|---|---|
| English: | Ang Mo Kio |
| Chinese: | 宏茂桥 |
| (Pinyin: | Hóngmàoqiáo) |
| Malay: | Ang Mo Kio |
| Tamil: | ஆங் மோ கியோ |
<Singapore stub needing expansion>
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Ang Mo Kio is a neighbourhood located in central Singapore. Although bearing many of the common features of the island nation's neighbourhoods such hawkers' stalls, wet markets and housing blocks, it is often seen as retaining a distinctive individual identity. Singapore's Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong is a Members of Parliament representing this neighbourhood .
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Contents |
[edit] Origin of the name
Some seem to have incorrectly held that the name Ang Mo Kio refers to the bridges at the 7th milestone of Thomson Road found at the junction of Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 and Thomson Road. These two old bridges were known as Or-kio ("black bridges") in the local spoken dialects. As far as can be ascertained these were two officially unnamed bridges over the canal and old Kallang river connected to the Pierce Reservoir.
The actual name came from the old surveyed maps labeled as "Mukim of Ang Mo Kio" (Mukim meaning "area" or "district" in Malay). The word "Ang Mo" 红毛 may in fact not refer to Westerners. Likely it is derived from two separate combined phrases in Hokkien. Ang Mo Dan means "rambutan" 红毛丹, a local fruit, red and covered in hair, found plentifully around the areas of old kampongs. Likely the second suffix "kio" 桥 ("bridge" or "bridges" in Hokkien) was added to the prefix "Ang Mo" 红毛 as an additional description to indicate a proper place of a name i.e.红毛桥. There were many concrete bridges built by the old kampong dwellers. It appears early maps were drawn by surveyors who took those two phrases and combined them to form "Mukim of Ang Mo Kio" ("District of Ang Mo Kio"). The actual location where the Ang Mo Kio New Town stands has been known by the former name Kou-teu kio, Hokkien for "Ninth Bridge".
[edit] Culture and changes
Among many residents, the old friendly kampong spirit of sharing and caring seemed to be a strong cultural trait found among the inhabitants of the New Town of Ang Mo Kio. The older generation of kampong people who were once fruit and vegetable growers, small-scale merchants and hard working laborers had produced two more generations. Some are found living with their children in the renewed environment residing in three- to five- room HDB apartments. The lifestyle of the area had been changed from the simple one of the kampong to urbanized, modernized, and somewhat Westernized living. This included the advent of piped running water, electricity, flush toilets, daily garbage removal plus all the necessary amenities which were hardly possible in the era of the former small village. Some old kampong folks recalls one of the symbolic changes of recent times that "Even the postman can deliver his mail without problems!"
Most of the adult children had moved on to the new housing estates like Sengkang, Punggol, Woodland New Town and other parts of the Island but their kinship spirit are often kept alive by constant return visits to see their older forbears especially during the weekends and public holidays. Even when away from home in other parts of the globe, a Ang Mo Kio resident will be proud to say, “I am from Ang Mo Kio”!”"
[edit] Ang Mo Kio New Town
| Ang Mo Kio New Town | |
|---|---|
| Total area: | 6.38 km² |
| Residential area: | 2.83 km² |
| Dwelling units: | 47,806 |
| Projected ultimate: | 58,000 |
| Population: | 162,200 |
Ang Mo Kio New Town is a public housing estate located in the North-eastern area of Singapore. Its boundary runs along Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 2, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5, Yio Chu Kang Road, Ang Mo Kio Street 66, Nanyang Polytechnic, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5, Ang Mo Kio Industrail Park 2, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3, and the Central Expressway to the junction with Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1.
[edit] History
Ang Mo Kio New Town is the seventh New Town to be built in Singapore. The early stage of construction took place in 1973 by the Housing and Development Board under the Ministry of National Development. After over thirty years of existence, it is considered one of the matured housing estates with established markets, schools, institutions, community, residential, administrative centers, and even a community hospital and other important amenities for the housing residents.
Ang Mo Kio New Town is in a dynamic changing environment. Further improvements made to the town are still in the process under the HDB and the Town Councils established in the various housing estates on the island.. It has the overall preview of the Ministry of National Development. The administrators have successfully completed various phases i.e., Upgrading programs in their strategic planning of the overall Island City of Singapore.
[edit] Town planning
The town has seven neighbourhoods, with Neighbourhood 1 to the west, and cycling in an anti-clockwise direction to Neighbourhood 6 to the north, and ending with Neighbourhood 7 for the town centre.
[edit] Residential
[edit] Commercial
The Town is comparatively quiet and the nightlife hardly existing. It used to be a new town when first developed as a satellite town. There were always crowds all days and nights, but they dwindle to a few nowadays. It has recently moved the center of attraction of the shopping complex cum bus terminal to another vicinity nearby, and the crowd left with only the few who lived around here. In its plan to draw back the crowd, the town planners are getting to build another new town center to replace the old. It is expected to be ready when completed in 2006.
[edit] Transportation
The town's road system utilises a hierarchy of road sizes, namely the major roads called Avenues, and the local-access roads called Streets. The town's avenues are arranged in a grid-like pattern, with the streets filtering traffic from the avenues to the individual blocks. The town itself is served by the Central Expressway, providing the fastest link from the town to the rest of the island on the expressway network.
The town's road numbering system has the avenues in odd numbers generally running in an east-west direction counting from the south, while the even numbers run in a north-south direction counting from the west. Hence, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 runs along the south edge of the town to Ang Mo Kio Avenue 9 in the north, while Ang Mo Kio Avenue 2 runs in a north-south direction to the west of the town, while Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10 is located in the east. Street numberings are in two digits, with the first number corresponding to the neighbouhood it belongs to, while the second digit runs in numerical sequence.
Ang Mo Kio New Town was the first town to introduce this road numbering system, and it has since been replicated in other towns such as Hougang New Town, Jurong West New Town and Woodlands New Town. The newest towns such as Sengkang New Town and Punggol New Town no longer follows this system, however.
The town is well served by a multi-modal public transport system. Two Mass Rapid Transit stations serve the town, namely Ang Mo Kio MRT Station at the centre of town, and Yio Chu Kang MRT Station serving the town's northern area. The Ang Mo Kio Bus Interchange is directly linked to the Ang Mo Kio MRT Station via an underground pedestrain walkway, and provides feeder bus services from the MRT stations to each neighbourhood. Yio Chu Kang MRT Station is also served by bus services via the Yio Chu Kang Bus Terminal sited beside the station. Both the bus interchange and terminal offers trunk bus services to connect the town with the rest of the island, including Shenton Way, Orchard Road, Marina Centre, Marine Parade and so on.
[edit] Recreation
Ang Mo Kio recreation area is found mainly in the single park area where it is famous for its bird's park. It provides a variety of daily activities for everybody. There is a 4-5 kilometres roundabout track for runners and walkers, an exercise area where early birds can do their co-ordinate exercises and playground for children. The Ang Mo Kio Park is located on a hilly area surrounded by Avenues 4,5,6 and alongside Mayflower estate. Residents has no lack of recreation facilities since the huge Bishan Parks along Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 is frequented by people from both Ang Mo Kio and Bishan estates. There is a famous bicycle way which stretches all the way along the length of the Kallang River where cyclists can enjoy their rides away from the dangers on the vehicle roads. For others who prefer indoor comforts there are many community centers which host a variety of indoor recreation sports like badminton, basket ball courts etc.
[edit] Social amenities
Most of the residents' needs for healthcare, community welfare services, emergencies and crime prevention are provided through both the public and voluntary organisations. A government run Polyclinic located in the center of the Town is one of the oldest on the Island. It provide healthcare for outpatients and do a variety of services especially for monitoring the health of expectant mothers and follow up on patients. Many small family doctors clinics operate alongside in different parts of the estate. There are a few some specialty clinics for women and others patients with special needs. The Ang Mo Kio Community Hospital is one the new setups where many patients go for their needs. It operates a follow up on elder patients and special therapy sessions for post-surgery patients. The Ang Mo Kio Police headquarters is located along Avenue 9. It is a centralized area where both fire and emergencies vehicles operated for the emergency calls on 999. Anyone who lives in the estate will find plenty of amenities for the comforts, security and their peace of mind. The Town council is the general administrative center which overview the running of all services such as the essential services for the residents. A lift breakdown generally takes less than fifteen minutes for the service people to arrive and fix! Anyone who call the Town maintaince services on the toll free line 1800-275 5555 will get a response within a reasonable time of less than twenty minutes.There are many residents' organisations where residents could join in and become members, and participate in their activities such as Karaoke singing sessions. Plus that, the Town has scattered voluntary family centers for counseling and helps to those with family related problems.
[edit] Ang Mo Kio Planning Area
The Ang Mo Kio Planning Area as defined by the Urban Redevelopment Authority is bounded by Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1, Old Upper Thomson Road, Upper Thomson Road, Seletar Expressway, and Central Expressway, covering an area of approximately 13.36 square kilometres, which is developed and expanded from an original area of 6.38 square kilometres. Ten sub-zones further demarcate the area, namely Town Centre, Cheng San, Chong Boon, Townsville, Shangri-La, Kebun Bahru, Sembawang Hills, Yio Chu Kang, Sindo, and Seletar.
[edit] Town centre rejuvenation
The town's thirty-two years of existence can be considerd a relatively short lifespan in the context of world history, but in such an oft-changing environment as Singapore, almost anything can be perceived as "old" by many people after merely a few years. To illustrate a common Singaporean perspective on time, it is reported anecdotally that a taxicab driver once stated that if something is three years old then it is "old" in Singapore.
The biggest attraction of every new town is the novetly of its new concepts, colors and innovative designs. The upcoming Center of the New Town will be boasting a completely re-built beautiful and colorful complex with its newest boast of ideas, concepts and vision put into reality. The planned Ang Mo Kio Town Center will definitely be another big draw of new crowds to the new town. It will have a airconditioned multi-level shopping cum car park with the common interlink to the present Ang Mo Kio MRT Station and the re-built Ang Mo Kio Bus Interchange.
[edit] Places of worship
There many temples, mosques and churches scattered all over the estate. It is usually a walking distance for anyone interested to visit.
[edit] Education
One of the reason when locating or re-locating for many residents who moved to Ang Mo Kio housing estate is the existence of many excellent schools . It has plenty of kindergardens, Primary and Secondary schools. as well as Junior colleges plus a new IT college. Among the many well established educational and public interests outlets is the old Ang Mo Kio Library which has been renovated and run by a very friendly staff. Every morning on their open days and without fail, these warm friendly staff at the library will stand at the entrance way to wish all early birds with a happy smiling "good morning" welcoming greeting!
[edit] Ang Mo Kio Group Representative Constituency
GRC is an acronym standing for Group Representative Constituency. Usually each GRC will have a few candidates combined to form a group, with one or two minority representatives included. It is a setup whose purpose was to run the combined small estates for better efficiency and organisation. For instant, it is difficult for small constituencies to run its own Town administrations within its constraints of its size limitation such as for amenities like better schools and other amenities. On the other side, some left wings groups known here on the Island as "opposition", have run successfully their own smaller setups without any major problems. Generally speaking, the political machine of all parties become more active during the election year, and all the GRCs operate all year round to run their own constituency. Each GRC stand to gain or lose support based on its ability to run their estates well for the general good of the residents who will definitely give their support to those will the best suited for their jobs. The Ang Mo kio GRC has several offices to help their own residents and supporters, and they generally keep a low profile until during the election time
[edit] culture of Singapore
As Singapore is a small and relatively modern amalgam of Chinese, Malay and Indian immigrants. The culture of Singapore expresses the diversity of the population as the various ethnic groups continue to celebrate their own cultures while they intermingle with one another.
For example, one can find a Malay wedding taking place beside a Chinese wedding at a void deck, on the ground floor of a HDB apartment block. This can be said to be due to the policies of the HDB which tried to make sure all public housing have a diverse mix of races. However, Singapore has achieved a significant degree of cultural diffusion with its unique combination of these ethnic groups, and has given Singapore a rich mixture of diversity for its young age.
Singapore has several distinct ethnic neighborhoods, including Little India, Chinatown and Kampong Glam, formed by the Raffles Plan of Singapore in the early 19th century to segregate the new immigrants into specific areas. Although the population are no longer segregated in distribution, mainly due to the policies of the Housing Development Board and the ruling GARMEN, these ethnic neighbourhoods retain unique elements of their specific culture. The usage of such neighbourhoods is mostly commercial or for cottage industry specific to the culture of its ethnic neighbourhood, and no longer plays a large part in housing the population, although it was once used for that purpose. Hence, these neighbourhoods have patronage of all races who wish to either eat or buy something specific to that culture.
For example, Little India is known and patronised by all races within the population for its thalis-- South Indian "buffets" that are vegetarian and served on the traditional banana leaves. These neighbourhoods are accessible by public transport, especially by Mass Rapid Transit (MRT).
