Singapore View (1)

Singapore is one of most dynamic cities in Asia, which merges the western and eastern cultures. Singapore has four official languages : English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil. Meanwhile, the population is highly diverse and the majority is Chinese, Malay and Indian.

Orchard Road is a road in Singapore that is the retail and entertainment hub of the city-state. It is regularly frequented by the local population as well as being a major tourist attraction. Often the surrounding area is known simply as Orchard.

Orchard Road is flanked by pedestrian malls. Orchard Road also contains numerous upmarket restaurants, coffee chains, cafés, nightclubs and hotels. It is also the site of the official residence of the President of Singapore, the Istana.

Raffles Place is a large complex located in the Ciciv District within the Downtown Core of the city-state of Singapore. Occupying an entire city block bounded by Stamford Road, Beach Road, Bras Basah Road and North Bridge Road, it houses two hotels and an office tower over a podium which contains a shopping mall and a convention centre.

Groundbreaking on the site took place on 14 August 1980 and officially opened to the public on 3 October 1986. The complex was designed by I. M. Pei in one of his earliest works in the city state. Built on the former site of Raffles Institution, the first school in Singapore, and located beside the historic Raffles Hotel, its aluminium-finish and simple geometric designs gave a stark, modernist contrast to Victorian architecture and classical architecture which used to characterise architecture in that district. The design includes the world's sixth tallest hotel, the 73-storey Swissôtel The Stamford, as well as a 26 storey high-end twin-tower hotel, the Fairmont Singapore. The three blocks are complemented by the rectangular 42-storey Raffles City Tower, an office block.