Ang Mo Kio

Names
English:	Ang Mo Kio
Chinese:	宏茂桥
(Pinyin:	Hóngmàoqiáo)
Malay:	Ang Mo Kio
Tamil:	fill in

Ang Mo Kio is a neighbourhood in the center of Singapore. Although like most neighbourhoods in this country it is crowded with hawker's stalls, wet markets and housing blocks, it retains an individual identity. One of the Members of Parliament of this neighbourhood is also Singapore's Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong.

The name "Ang Mo Kio" comes from the Hokkien phrase 红毛桥, meaning "Westerner Bridge", where ang mo (literally "red hair") is a somewhat derogatory Singlish word for "westerner". Due to the unflattering nature of this name, the word is now written as 宏茂桥 in Chinese, which is pronounced nearly identically, and means "bridge of expansiveness and prosperity". It was assumed incorrectly that the name of “Ang Mo Kio” refer to the bridge at 7th milestone of Thomson Road (which is found at the junction Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 and Thomson Road). These two old bridges were known as "Or-kio"(black bridges) in the local Hokkien dialect. As far as certain these were two officially unnamed bridges over the canal and old Kallang river connected to the Pierce Reservoir. The actual name came from the old surveyed Maps labeled as "Mukim of Ang Mo Kio" (Mukim means area or district in Malay). The actual word of "Ang Mo" 红毛 may not be referring to the "red hair" westerner. Likely it is derived from two separate combined phrases in Hokkien. "Ang Mo Dan" means rambutan 红毛丹 a local "red hairy" fruit found plentiful around the areas of old kampongs. Likely the second suffix "kio" 桥 ("bridge" or "bridges" in Hokkien)was added to the prefix "Ang Mo" 红毛 as an additional description to indicate a proper place of a name i.e.红毛桥. There were many concrete bridges built by the old kampong folk. Obviously the early map were drawn by surveyors who took those two phrases and combined them to form " Mukim of Ang Mo Kio" meaning "District of Ang Mo Kio". The actual location where the Ang Mo Kio New Town stands has been known by the old name "Kou-teu kio" or in Hokkien meaning the Ninth Bridge.

The old friendly kampong spirit of sharing and caring seemed to be a strong character found inherent among the inhabitants of the New Town of Ang Mo Kio. The older generation of kampong people who were once fruit-cum-vegetable growers, small merchants and hard working laborers had produced two more generations. Some are found living with their children in the renewed environment their three-, four- and five- rooms HDB apartments. Their simple lifestyles had been change from kampong to urbanized living. Now they had piped running water, electricity, flush toilets, daily garbage removal plus all the necessary amenities which were hardly possible in their old villagers’ time. Even the postman can deliver his mail without problems!

Most of the adult children had moved on to the new housing estates like Sengkang, Punggol, Woodland New Town and other parts of the Island but their kinship spirit are often kept alive by constant return visits to see their older forbears especially during the weekends and public holidays. Even when away from home in other parts of the globe, a Ang Mo Kio resident will be proud to say, “ I am from Ang Mo Kio”!”

Ang Mo Kio New Town

Ang Mo Kio New Town
Total Area:	638 ha
Residential Area:	283 ha
Dwelling Units:	47,806
Projected Ultimate:	58,000
Population:	162,200

Ang Mo Kio New Town is a public housing estate located in the North-eastern area of Singapore. Its boundary runs along Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 2, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5, Yio Chu Kang Road, Ang Mo Kio Street 66, Nanyang Polytechnic, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5, Ang Mo Kio Industrail Park 2, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3, and the Central Expressway to the junction with Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1.

History

Ang Mo Kio New Town is the seventh New Town to be built in Singapore. The early stage of construction took place in 1973 by the Housing and Development Board under the Ministry of National Development. After over thirty years of existence, it is considered one of the matured housing estates with established markets, schools, institutions, community, residential, administrative centers, and even a community hospital and other important amenities for the housing residents.

Ang Mo Kio New Town is in a dynamic changing environment. Further improvements made to the town are still in the process under the HDB and the Town Councils established in the various housing estates on the island.. It has the overall preview of the Ministry of National Development. The administrators have successfully completed various phases i.e., Upgrading programs in their strategic planning of the overall Island City of Singapore.

Town Planning

The town has seven neighbourhoods, with Neighbourhood 1 to the west, and cycling in an anti-clockwise direction to Neighbourhood 6 to the north, and ending with Neighbourhood 7 for the town centre.

Transportation

The town's road system utilises a hierarchy of road sizes, namely the major roads called Avenues, and the local-access roads called Streets. The town's avenues are arranged in a grid-like pattern, with the streets filtering traffic from the avenues to the individual blocks. The town itself is served by the Central Expressway, providing the fastest link from the town to the rest of the island on the expressway network.

The town's road numbering system has the avenues in odd numbers generally running in an east-west direction counting from the south, while the even numbers run in a north-south direction counting from the west. Hence, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 runs along the south edge of the town to Ang Mo Kio Avenue 9 in the north, while Ang Mo Kio Avenue 2 runs in a north-south direction to the west of the town, while Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10 is located in the east. Street numberings are in two digits, with the first number corresponding to the neighbouhood it belongs to, while the second digit runs in numerical sequence.

Ang Mo Kio New Town was the first town to introduce this road numbering system, and it has since been replicated in other towns such as Hougang New Town, Jurong West New Town and Woodlands New Town. The newest towns such as Sengkang New Town and Punggol New Town no longer follows this system, however.

The town is well served by a multi-modal public transport system. Two Mass Rapid Transit stations serve the town, namely Ang Mo Kio MRT Station at the centre of town, and Yio Chu Kang MRT Station serving the town's northern area. The Ang Mo Kio Bus Interchange is directly linked to the Ang Mo Kio MRT Station via an underground pedestrain walkway, and provides feeder bus services from the MRT stations to each neighbourhood. Yio Chu Kang MRT Station is also served by bus services via the Yio Chu Kang Bus Terminal sited beside the station. Both the bus interchange and terminal offers trunk bus services to connect the town with the rest of the island, including Shenton Way, Orchard Road, Marina Centre, Marine Parade and so on.

Recreation

(to be expanded)

• Parks
• Sports facilities

Social Amenities

(to be expanded)

• Healthcare
• Fire and police services

Ang Mo Kio Planning Area

The Ang Mo Kio Planning Area as defined by the Urban Redevelopment Authority is bounded by Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1, Old Upper Thomson Road, Upper Thomson Road, Seletar Expressway, and Central Expressway, covering an area of approximately 1,336 hectares, which is developed and expanded from an original area of 638 hectares. Ten sub-zones further demarcate the area, namely Town Centre, Cheng San, Chong Boon, Townsville, Shangri-La, Kebun Bahru, Sembawang Hills, Yio Chu Kang, Sindo, and Seletar.

Town centre rejuvenation

The thirty-two years of existence of the town is a relatively short lifespan but anything on the vibrant Island of Singapore is considered "antiques" after a couple of years. A local taxicab driver once said if it is three years' old then it is "old" in Singapore. The biggest attraction of every new town is the novetly of its new concepts, colors and innovative designs. The upcoming Center of the New Town will be boasting a completely re-built beautiful and colorful complex with its newest boast of ideas, concepts and vision put into reality. The planned Ang Mo Kio Town Center will definitely be another big draw of new crowds to the new town. It will have a airconditioned multi-level shopping cum car park with the common interlink to the present Ang Mo Kio MRT Station and the re-built Ang Mo Kio Bus Interchange.

Ang Mo Kio Group Representative Constituency

(to be expanded)