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Padang Review
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Padang
- Category: Parks
- Location: Colonial Singapore
Fodor's Review:
Used primarily as a playing field, the Padang (Malay for "field" or "plain") is behind the Singapore Cricket Club. It has traditionally been a social and political hub. Once called the Esplanade, it was half its current size until an 1890s land reclamation expanded it. During World War II the Japanese gathered 2,000 British civilians here before marching them off to Changi Prison and, in many cases, to their deaths.
Beyond the Padang's northeastern edge, across Stamford Road and the Stamford Canal, are the four 220-foot (67-meter) tapering white columns of the Civilian War Memorial, known locally as the Four Chopsticks. The monument honors the thousands of civilians from Singapore's four main ethnic groups (Chinese, Malay, Indian, and "others," including Eurasians and Europeans) who lost their lives during the Japanese occupation or were dispatched to build the Burma-Siam Railway.
Along the Padang's eastern edge, just across Connaught Drive, are several other monuments. Major General Lim Bo Seng Memorial honors a World War II freedom fighter who was tortured to death by the Japanese in 1944. The imposing Cenotaph War Memorial honors the dead of the two world wars.
- Metro: City Hall
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- Bus from Singapore to Malaysia
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