Stepping out of the Singapore MRT at Raffles Place station at any time of day is an almost anthropological experience. Despite the sweltering heat, the women are wearing suits, vertiginous heels and perfect make-up. As for the men, they wouldn't roll up the sleeves of their their impeccably white shirts. Yet life is far from monotonous in the almost one hundred skyscrapers of the Central Business District (CBD), officially classified as "office buildings". Working in the 43-storey Ocean Financial Centre or the 67-storey United Overseas Bank Plaza One doesn't mean you're just suspended in air conditioning.
Jaelle Ang and Yian Huang, who chose the One George Street tower to open the sumptuous coworking space The Great Room just a year ago, know all about it. This office space has the feel of a five-star hotel, very classy and very 50s, with extremely attentive staff looking after the well-being of members who move between leather sofas and marble coffee tables. Among other advantages, it is located on the edge of Chinatown. Through the huge bay windows, you can admire the beautiful rooftops and thehe colourful facades of this charming district. Because at the edge of this forest of effervescent skyscrapers that is CBD, another city exists. A city that's slowing down.
It's taken several years for Chinatown, which had fallen into a state of neglect, to gradually regain its former panache. It all started with André, a talented young chef who, in 2010, opened his restaurant in a small house in Chinatown, which at the time was still a little despised. This already showed the audacity of the man who had taken his first steps in the kitchens of France, working with the Pourcel brothers and Pierre Gagnaire. As you can imagine, his little jewel of an establishment - it's André himself, who handles the potter's wheel as well as the pots and pans, and makes his own crockery - quickly drew attention to Chinatown. And even more so last year, when the young genius was awarded a dtwo Michelin starswhich had just launched its first Singaporean edition.
From contemporary gourmet bistros like Populus to Michelin-starred restaurants like André, Chinatown is teeming with great places to eat, big and small.
Three apples high
Chinatown has the wind in its sails and is attracting not only hipsters, but also businessmen and women who, on their lunch break or, better still, in the evening, once they've crossed the great symbolic artery that is Neil Road, finally roll up their sleeves or slip into a good pair of flip-flops. This is a different atmosphere It's a city of cafés, bustling shops and streets full of serenity. It has to be said that the colourful, three-apple-high houses that once housed the stalls, some in colonial style, others in Art Deco, with their arcades providing protection from the sun or torrential rain, have a real cachet all of their own.
When you consider that between 2005 and 2015, the number of employees in the CBD rose from 240,000 to almost 400,000, it's easy to see why they come to Chinatown in search of peace and originality. There's Cure, a restaurant based on the Parisian bistro Chateaubriand, where you don't get to choose your dishes, and Populus, a café with a hipster vibe where you can nibble quinoa, organic vegetables and avocado in large ceramic bowls.
Select or on the go, Chinatown addresses are always originalLokal, a Germanic bistro attached to the Goethe Institute, or Mad about Sucre, a sort of jewellery and pastry shop where sweet creations are served before and after local dishes.
Among Chinatown's best addresses, we must also salute the presence ofa charming boutique hotelThe Naumi Liora is the result of the merger of ten bright orange former houses. This contrasts with the immaculate colour of a magnificent building that resembles an ancient theatre and houses another shared workspace, The Working Capitol, which is a little more creative than corporate.
It's a safe bet that the freelance workers who frequent this area will tend to cross Neal Road in the opposite direction again, to enjoy a chilled Tiger Beer at One Altitude, a bar at the top of a 282-metre tower. Open to all winds, which is delicious in such a hot city, One Altitude is 'the' place from which to admire all the beauty of a city with a rich past, but resolutely turned towards the future.
