Asian Civilisation Museum

Civilisation chosen: China

How the people in China dealt with their contraints:

How their responses contributed to the social, cultural and technological changes that occurred in Asia:

3 artifacts:

Clothes

This robe is long and regal, thus suggesting that it may have belonged to a chinese official with a high rank. You can also tell that chinese liked loose clothes and the more intricate that pattern on the cloth, the more expensive it must have been. Unlike clothes now, which fit the body perfectly and not billow around. You will also not find clothes with intricate patterns on it unless you really search for it.

Figurines/Statues

You hardly see these statues in houses nor buildings anymore, except for temples. Chinese had many stories and beliefs about gods. Some gods are good, and others are bad. Many statues were placed in their houses from long ago to ward off evil and bring good luck. Many chinese houses would have a special altar where they pray every night, and may not have such strong beliefs about the stories, although it is their religion.

Bottles/containers

These weird looking metal tins were to hold tea leaves in the olden times. This is scene from an old coffee (or should I say, tea) shop. When the owners want to make a pot of tea, they simply scoop up a spoonful of leaves and put them in hot water, add milk or sugar and it's ready to be served. Unlike our current time, where all we need to do is to put a teabag that has all the flavors inside hot water and voila! a nice steaming cup of tea is ready to be drank!

Our Route from Clark Quay to ACM

View Coleman Bridge, Singapore in a larger map

We started off at Clark Quay MRT station. 


And ended at Asian Civilization Museum.

Activities that were/are carried out along the river

Early days

The Singapore River in the past was a very busy place.

This can be seen in the topmost picture, where a seated Eurasian business man is seen talking to a Malay trader and another Chinese trader. They might have been discussing about sealing a deal. This is as a lot of businesses and trades were done along the river in thepast, as there were a lot of unloading/loading of goods along the Singapore River.

The 2 pictures below shows another sculpture that can be seen along the river, which shows a man passing a heavy looking sack of goods to another. The man who was ready to receive the sack was sitting atop a bull drawn cart already almost full to the brim of similar sacks as the one that had just been passed. The cart that he was sitting atop looked similar to those that were used by the coolies in the past for transporting goods and other stuff to warehouses for storage.

This shows that the Singapore River was indeed very busy in the past, due to the various commerce that was done along it, which had helped greatly in improving Singapore to the prosperous place that it is now.

Present days

The present Singapore River is still as busy as ever, even though there are no longer old fashioned trading and boats docking along it.

In the upper picture, a tall building can be seen. This is located along the Singapore River, and is one of the many business and commerce buildings that can be seen at the Singapore River.

Now, the only boats that can be seen in the Singapore River are boats that would ferry tourists around and along the Singapore River, allowing them to take in all of the sights along it in a rather traditional way which reminds them of the river's history in the past. Also, they would not need to go to the expense of walking under the hot and sweltering sun in order to do so.

There are also a lot of shopping, eating and recreational activities available along it. There are a lot of malls and buildings. As it can be seen from the bottom picture, there is also a stretch of restaurants and small, charming and quirky shops nearby, adorning a portion of the riverbank.

Maybank Tower

The Maybank Tower is directly next to the famous Fullerton Hotel and is the tallest building in Singapore. You can easily see Anderson Bridge and the Asian Civilization Museum from the Maybank Tower.

To read more about the Fullerton Hotel, click here.
To read more about the Maybank Tower, click here.
To read more about the Asian Civilisation Museum, click here.

Would Singapore River change it's course or shape?

This is what the Singapore River looks like in the olden days.

And this is now it looks like now. Not much had changed since the olden times, but the causes had changed a lot. 

As the sides of the Singapore River are set in concrete and building surround the Singapore River on both sides, we doubt that Singapore river would change it's shape nor course in any way in the future as it would affect the shops and people.