Ann Siang Hill

Why go

Ann Siang Hill adds a quieter social history to a Chinatown walk. Its five-foot ways once held letter writers helping migrants contact families in China, while remittance houses handled money sent home. The restored shophouses make those former uses easier to picture than an isolated monument would.

What to look for

• Restored shophouses line Ann Siang Hill and Ann Siang Road.
• The covered five-foot ways recall the street's former letter writers.
• The hill links Club Street with the South Bridge Road side of Chinatown.

The full story

Ann Siang Hill takes its name from Chia Ann Siang, a Malacca-born Hokkien merchant and timber businessman who acquired land here in the nineteenth century. The hill had earlier carried other owners' names. Its present name records one layer of Chinatown's commercial history. For many early Chinese migrants, this was also a practical place. Remittance houses helped send earnings to families in China. Letter writers and calligraphers worked along the covered five-foot ways of shophouses, writing messages for people who could not write them themselves. The buildings on and around Ann Siang Road largely date from the early twentieth century, and clan associations and social clubs also used the area. These details give the street a different meaning from its present storefronts. On a short walk, look at the narrow building frontages and the sheltered pavement, then imagine the services that connected residents here to people far beyond Singapore.

Useful to know

• Combine the hill with nearby Chinatown streets rather than treating it as a long standalone visit.
• Expect an uphill street; take the short climb at a comfortable pace.

Your next visit

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