SECRET SINGAPORE

A lighthouse on the top of a 25-storey apartment block, a unique rocky area that looks like Guilin in China, the remains of a Shinto shrine built in the jungle by prisoners of war, houses from the Ming and Qing periods donated by Jackie Chan, the bottoms of soya-sauce bottles used to decorate the Sultan Mosque, the “leaning tower” of Singapore, the last remaining stretch of natural beach, a forgotten bomb shelter under a national monument, the beautiful modernist door of a former biscuit factory, a hidden kampong (rural village) dwarfed by residential towers, the splendidly preserved old Changi prison gates, the stately Masons Hall inside the Freemasons’ headquarters … Far from the crowds and the usual clichés, Singapore still has a number of hidden treasures for people who know how to wander off the beaten track. This is an indispensable guide for those who think they know Singapore … or who want to discover another side to the city-state.