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Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore , is an
island city-state and the smallest country in South-East Asia.
It is located on the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, south
of the Malaysian state of Johor, and north of the Indonesian
Riau Islands. It lies just 137 kilometres (85 miles) north of
the Equator.
The site of several ancient port cities and a possession of
several empires in its history, Singapore was a Malay fishing
village when it was colonised by the United Kingdom in the 19th
century. It was further occupied by the Japanese Empire in World
War II, and was later part of the merger which established
Malaysia. When Singapore acquired independence, having few
natural resources, it was sociopolitically volatile and
economically undeveloped. Foreign investment and rapid
government-led industrialization has since created an economy
which relies on exports of electronics and manufacturing
primarily from its port.
More than 90% of Singapore's population lives in housing estates
constructed by the Housing Development Board and nearly half
uses the public transport system daily. As a result of efforts
to control motorised traffic, the maintenance of natural
greenery, strict regulations on industrial locations and
emissions, and other pro-environmental initiatives by the
government and the private sector, Singapore has been able to
control its pollution levels to well within World Health
Organization standards.
Singapore consists of 63 islands, including the main island
itself. There are two connections from Singapore to the
Malaysian state of Johor — a man-made causeway known as the
Johor-Singapore Causeway to the north, crossing the Tebrau
Straits, and Tuas Second Link, a bridge in the western part of
Singapore that connects to Johor. Jurong Island, Pulau Tekong,
Pulau Ubin and Sentosa are the largest of Singapore's many
smaller islands. The highest point of Singapore is Bukit Timah
Hill, with a height of 166 metres (538 ft).
The urban area used to be only concentrated on the southern part
of Singapore around the mouth of the Singapore River and what is
now the Downtown Core, while the rest of the land was tropical
rainforest or used for agriculture. Since the 1960s, the
government has constructed new towns in outlying areas,
resulting in an entirely built-up and urban landscape, although
the Central Area, the central business district, remains the
densest. The Urban Redevelopment Authority is a government
agency responsible for the urban planning of Singapore that
concentrates on efficient land use and distribution, as well as
transport flow. It has released a Development Guide Plan which
details specific land use for each the 55 urban planning areas
of Singapore.
Singapore has reclaimed land with earth obtained from its own
hills, the seabed and neighbouring countries. As a result,
Singapore's land area grew from 581.5 square kilometres (224.5
sq mi) in the 1960s to 697.2 square kilometres (269.1 sq mi)
today, and may grow by another 100 square kilometres (38.6 sq
mi) by 2030. About 23% of Singapore's land area consists of
forest and nature reserves.
The architecture of Singapore is extremely varied and diverse.
Due to the lack of available space, few historical buildings
remain in the urban areas of Singapore. However, Singapore has
become a centre for modern architecture as older buildings are
cleared away to make space for newer, larger buildings.
Historically, the demand for high-end buildings has been in and
around the Central Business District (CBD). After decades of
development, the CBD has become an area with many tall business
buildings. These buildings comprise the skyline along the coast
of Marina Bay and Raffles Place, which is a famous tourist
attraction in Singapore. Due to the air restrictions in
Singapore, no building in Singapore is to be taller than 280
metres. The three tallest buildings in Singapore, namely
Republic Plaza, UOB Plaza One and OUB Centre, are all 280 metres
in height.
Singapore is the second most densely populated independent
country in the world excluding Macau and Hong Kong which are
parts of PRC. Eighty-four percent of Singaporeans live in public
housing provided by the Housing and Development Board (HDB).The
largest group in the population of 4.35 million (as of June
2005) are the Singaporean Chinese who account for 76.8% of
Singaporeans, making it one of the largest Chinese cities
outside of China. Nearby Malaysia is also home to many ethnic
Chinese. Singapore is also diverse, with the Singaporean Malays,
who are the indigenous native group of the country, constituting
13.9%, though this number includes many Malay ethnic groups from
other parts of the Malay archipelago including the Javanese,
Bugis, Baweans and Minangkabau. Indian Singaporeans are the
third largest ethnic group at 7.9%, consisting of several groups
— Indian Tamils and Sri Lankan Tamils, who form the largest
Indian group, and others such as Malayalees, Punjabis and
Bengalis. The rest are made up of smaller groups such as Arab
Singaporeans, Jews, Thais, Japanese, European and the Eurasian
Singaporean community.
Singapore is also a multi-religious country, due mainly to its
location on one of the world's major transportation routes. More
than 40% of Singaporeans practice Buddhism. About 15% practice
Christianity (mostly Chinese and Indians), and 15% profess no
religion. Muslims (mostly Malays) account for 14%. A smaller
minority practices Taoism, Sikhism, Hinduism, Baha'i Faith, and
others.
Singapore is a major Asian transportation hub, strategically
lying on major sea and air trade routes. Its history has been
closely tied to the growth of its transportation industry since
the establishment of its port. The transportation industry
comprises over 10% of Singaporean GDP despite an increasingly
diversified economy. The Port of Singapore, managed by port
operators PSA International and Jurong Port, was the world's
busiest port in 2005 in terms of shipping tonnage handled with
1.15 billion gross tons handled, and in terms of containerised
traffic, with 23.2 million Twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs)
handled. It was also the world's second busiest in terms of
cargo tonnage, coming behind Shanghai with 423 million tons
handled. In addition, Singapore is the world's busiest hub for
transhipment traffic and the world's biggest ship refuelling
hub.
Singapore is a major aviation hub and an important stopover
point for the 'Kangaroo route' between Australasia and Europe.
Singapore Changi Airport has a network of 81 airlines connecting
Singapore to 179 cities in 57 countries (2005). It is one of the
top five airports in Asia in terms of passengers handled, with
30 million passengers passing through in 2004. It has been
consistently rated as one of the best international airports by
numerous international travel magazines. It was also rated as
the world's best airport in year 2006 by Skytrax, defeating its
long time rival, Hong Kong International Airport.A low-cost
terminal, the Budget Terminal, which started operation in March
2006 and a third passenger terminal now under construction will
increase the airport's total annual capacity to 66.7 million
passengers by 2008. The national carrier Singapore Airlines
(SIA) is internationally renowned for its service and will be
the first airline in the world to fly the new Airbus A380
commercially.
The backbone of domestic transport infrastructure is the road
transport system which includes a network of expressways that
form the arteries between distinct towns and regional centres as
laid out in Singapore's urban planning. Following a government
study assisted by the United Nations Development Programme which
foresaw problems with private transport such as traffic
congestion and air pollution as the city grew, the Land
Transport Authority began a series of measures to develop the
use of the public transport system such as improving the
nation's bus service and liberalising the hired vehicle market
to allow for more taxi operators. Since 1987, the heavy rail
passenger Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) metro system has been in
operation. MRT was later augmented by and linked to the Light
Rapid Transit (LRT) light rail system, which provides service to
several expanses of housing estates. The EZ-Link system allows
contactless smartcards to serve as stored value tickets for use
in the public transport systems. More than 2.8 million people
use the bus network daily, while more than 1.3 million people
use either the LRT or MRT as part of their daily routine.
Approximately 900,000 people use the taxi services daily.
Private vehicle use in the Central Area is discouraged by tolls
implemented through an Electronic Road Pricing system which
operates during hours of heavy road traffic.
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