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Thursday, April 2, 2009

Toa Payoh

Hi

Lets see how to start. As you can see other people have already writen so many things about the blog already. I can start by saying that Toa Payoh have many fascinating places like the NTUCs, the pasar malam(night market)and i really feel happy living in here as there are so many good places. There are also places like interchange and many shopping areas and some fast food restraunts like MacDonald and KFCs.

Besides the places mentioned above, there is also a entertainment center which is also situated in Toa Payoh Central. The entertainment center consists of MacDonalds(all time favourite for kids), the arcade(all time favourite for teenagers), a 6-halls cinema and of course, restaurants such as Swensens and Sakae Sushi. It's quite lucky to have facilities near the place i stay as i can get everything i need in such a short period of time.

What will you think of when people ask you about Toa Payoh? Alot of people would just talk about Toa Payoh Central which my fellow schoolmates have done. Other than the Toa Payoh Centre, there are other places that i think people ought to know such as the Community Centres(South, East, West, Central), the stadium, swimming complex, and most importantly the neighbourhood. Apart from gourmets found in Toa Payoh Centre, there delicious food to be found around the neighbourhood such as in the markets and hawker centres. Let's give a brief history about Toa Payoh. The word 'Payoh' is originated from the malay word 'paya' which means swap.
Toa Payoh is simply means ' big swamp land' It was an extensive and notorious squatter district. Most squatters were engaged in farming and rearing pigs. (^oo^) The others were hawkers, factory workers, mechanics or domestic helpers. The squatters started moving out in1962. Clearance work was able to commence and the redevelopement project started in early 1964.

The Toa Payoh New Town, HDB's 2nd satellite town, was built in 1970. The housing estate was self-contained and had a town centre acting as a focal point for the shopping and entertainment needs of the resident. Industrial developemens were also built within the town to provide residents with job opportunities close to home while schoold were built within the neighbourhood.

Toa Payoh was the largest town in Singapore at that time as the first HDB town. The 12-storey structures of the standard blocks in Toa Payoh were then typical of the new apartment blacks built by the HDB, the new housing authority formed in 1960 to give a growing population an adequate shelther.

Most importantly, Toa Payoh has the honoured of having the visit by the Britain's queen, Queen ElizabethII. She is a distinguished dignitary who have visited Toa Payoh. She was here on 18 Feburary 1972, with the Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Anne. On the day of their visit, thousands of Singaporeans lined the streets outside Block 53 and 54 to welcome the royal party. The visitors made their way through the red-carpeted lift up the 19th floor roof-top to see the view before the residents.'

This is the end of my blog post.
Hope you enjoy and thank you.

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