I made an October 2006 visit to Singapore, which just happened to coincide with three festivals: Chinese Mid Autumn, Muslim Hari Raya Light-up Celebration, and Indian Deepavali (Festival of Lights). Interesting that all three feature lanterns and lights, hm?

I spent one morning at the Chinese Garden, which was built in 1975 and designed by Prof Yuen-chen Yu, a well-known architect from Taiwan, and is modeled along the northern Chinese imperial style of architecture and landscaping. The seven-storey pagoda “Ru Yun Ta” follows the style of Ling Ku Temple Pagoda in Nanjing. A Suzhou-style Bonsai Garden houses some 1,000 bansais imported mostly from China.

In the afternoon a friend and I dropped in to Haw Par Villa, built in 1937 by the entrepreneurial and charismatic Aw Boon Haw (creator of Tiger Balm) for his brother Boon Par. The Ten Courts of Hell exhibit features the ten steps of judgement before reincarnation.

Didn't really take photos of much else, sorry.