This bridge, in the Chinese style, connects Singapore’s Chinese Garden to its Japanese Garden. Dusk offered a nice reflection.
Believe it or not, this is a seven ton bronze sculpture. It’s only painted white and only appears to be a material as light as plastic. That seven tons is cantilevered off that one arm (i.e. the back of the hand is all that touches the ground.)
It’s called “Planet” and it was sculpted by Marc Quinn in 2008.
Here is a pic from farther away that may offer more sense of scale.
The whisper of two hands sweeping
A pre-dawn impatient auto beeping
Early morning bicycle horn
Its character croaked, old and worn
The tout calls, raspy and rhythmic
Some birds sing, and others mimic
Relentless, the screeching squirrel
Rattling the battling cats so feral
TING-TING, spatula on kadai
The sizzled speech of things that fry
Twenty talks held in ten tongues
The bounce of distant bongo drums
Puttering auto struggles for speed
The angry whine of steel wheeled steeds
Meanwhile Ladakh’s Martian soundscapes
The silent swish of saris draped
Snapping crackers and mortar booms
The thumping of neon nightclub tunes
Clacking high heels against sidewalk
Bantering bands of drunks cross-talk
Rolling shutters and clicking locks
The beep of setting cellphone clocks
Then nothing but the croak of frogs
And howls of nighttime alpha dogs
This Chinese temple sits in the heart of Singapore’s Chinatown. It’s said to be the oldest Hokkien or Hoklo temple (i.e. Han Chinese) in Singapore. It’s a temple related to Han Chinese culture generally, rather than to a particular sect or religion. While the main deity is Mazu (a.k.a. Ma Cho Po,) a maritime goddess from Chinese folklore that is sometimes associated with Taoism, there is also a Confucian shrine as well as homages to several Buddhist Bodhisattvas (a Bodhisattva is one who has achieved enlightenment but sticks around to help others out of compassion.)
I’ve been posting pics of Singapore’s tourist haunts, but it’s time for a glimpse into work-a-day Singapore.
The Port of Singapore is the world’s busiest transshipment port. Transshipment refers to a port that is neither the origin nor the destination of goods, but rather where they get shuffled between ships. And 20% of the world’s containers and half of the world’s crude oil travel through this port. It’s the second busiest port in the world by tonnage (FYI- Shanghai is #1, but at least in 2005 Singapore beat out Shanghai.)
I don’t have the best pics of this important aspect of the city because they were shots of opportunity. One shot that I didn’t even get a poor picture of was the ship-strewn seas viewed on descent into the airport. I’ve never seen such a high density of ships at anchor. Phenomenal.