Boat Quay

Trace this curved bend of the Singapore River back to the eighteen-sixties, when three-quarters of the colony's shipping business squeezed through it, and merchants believed the bank's shape, the belly of a carp, was where fortune pooled. You'll meet the coolies who worked round the clock, earning the quay its nickname Bu Ye Tian, the place that never sleeps, and picture some one hundred fifty boats jostling for space at the boom's peak. The guide also follows the quay into a quieter chapter, once the shipping trade moved on.