Jurong () is a major
geographical region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
located at the south-westernmost point of the
West Region Western Region or West Region may refer to:
Places
*Al Gharbia, Abu Dhabi, the Western Region
*Western Region, Bahrain
*Western Region, Eastern Cape, South Africa
*Western Region, Ghana
*Western Region (Iceland)
*Western Region, Nepal
*Western Regi ...
of
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
. Although mostly vaguely defined, the region's extent roughly covers the
planning areas of
Jurong East,
Jurong West
Jurong West is a planning area and residential town located in the West Region of Singapore. Jurong West shares boundaries with Tengah in the north, Jurong East in the east, Boon Lay and Pioneer in the south, and Western Water Catchment in t ...
,
Boon Lay, and
Pioneer
Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land.
In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and de ...
, along with
Jurong Island in the
Western Islands cluster and the southernmost portions of the
Western Water Catchment
The Western Water Catchment is a planning area located in the West Region of Singapore. The planning area borders Tuas and Pioneer to its south, Sungei Kadut, Choa Chu Kang and Tengah to its east, Jurong West to its southeast, Lim Chu Kang to ...
.
[ Should it be described at its greatest historical extent, the region can also include present-day ]Bukit Batok
Bukit Batok, often abbreviated as Bt Batok, is a planning area and matured residential town located along the eastern boundary of the West Region of Singapore. Bukit Batok statistically ranks in as the 25th largest, the 12th most populous and ...
and Tuas
Tuas is a planning area located within the West Region of Singapore. It is bounded by the Western Water Catchment to its north, Pioneer to its east and the Straits of Johor to its west. Tuas also shares a maritime boundary with the Western Island ...
.[
Jurong also covers several offshore islands as well, including Pulau Damar Laut and ]Pulau Samulun
Pulau Samulun is an offshore island in Jurong Industrial Estate, Singapore. It is separated from mainland Singapore by Selat Samulun. It is only less than a kilometre away from Singapore mainland. Jurong Shipyard is located in Pulau Samulun and ...
, both of which are located within the planning areas of Jurong East and Boon Lay respectively; along with the aforementioned Jurong Island. The coastline of the region on mainland Singapore, faces the strait of Selat Jurong, while the southernmost island of the region, Jurong Island, faces the strait of Selat Pandan
The Pandan Strait is a strait south of Singapore's main island. It separates the man-made Jurong Island from the Southern Islands. It has a depth of approximately . The strait was partially affected by the ''Natuna Sea'' oil spill in October 2 ...
.[
Jurong was first developed and heavily industrialised in the late 1960s in response to the general economic situation of post-independence Singapore, and remains vital to the country's economic growth, either ]commercial
Commercial may refer to:
* a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television)
** Radio advertisement
** Television advertisement
* (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...
, industrial
Industrial may refer to:
Industry
* Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry
* Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems
* Industrial city, a city dominate ...
and residential
A residential area is a land used in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas.
Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single-family housing, multi-family residen ...
. The heavy redevelopment of the region paved the way for the opening of a large-scale industrial sector in the country, something which was unprecedented at that time. Today, Jurong has become one of the most densely-populated industrial areas in the country. Since the turn of the century, Jurong is envisioned to be the country's second central business district
A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...
(CBD) as part of the Jurong Lake District
Jurong Lake District is a district of Singapore, planned as part of Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA)’s decentralisation efforts to bring more quality jobs, amenities, and recreational options closer to homes. The plans for the district ha ...
project.
Etymology
"Jurong" took its name from Sungei Jurong
Sungei Jurong (also known as the Jurong River) is a river in Jurong East, Singapore.
The Jurong River subzone runs across this river. The subzone is bounded by the Ayer Rajah Expressway
The Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE) extends from the west ...
, a river that still channels into Jurong Lake
Jurong Lake (; ms, Tasik Jurong ; ta, ஜூரோங் ஏரி) is a 70ha freshwater lake and reservoir located in the western region of Singapore formed with the damming of Sungei Jurong further downstream. The lake serves as a reservoir c ...
, the latter of which was created by damming the river itself.
Although its origins are disputed, the core definition of "Jurong", is probably derived from several meanings in Malay
Malay may refer to:
Languages
* Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore
** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century
** Indonesi ...
. The term could probably refer to the word for shark
Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimo ...
, "''Jerung''". It can also be derived from the word "''Jurang''" or a gorge
A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...
. Jurong could also take its name from the word, "''Penjuru''", which roughly translates to, corner. Penjuru may most likely refer to the peninsula that sits between Sungei Jurong and Sungei Pandan. The native Malays named this peninsula, Tanjong Penjuru, which can be translated as Cape Corner in English. The present-day site of Tanjong Penjuru is now the subzone of Penjuru Crescent.[
]
Geography
Pre-industrial Jurong
Landscape
Although Jurong's geography was documented on a few maps and records following Singapore's founding in 1819, the area only became clearer to the British in an 1828 geographical survey of the island by Lieutenant Philip Jackson. In a map that was drawn after the survey, the lieutenant clearly describes most of Jurong's natural geography with the two rivers of Jurong, Sungei Jurong and Sungei Pandan, marked on the map. He also noted down several islands which have since ceased to exist. Such islands include, Pulau Ayer Chawan, Pulau Butun, Pulau Pese (Pulau Pesek), Pulau Sakra and Pulau Saraya (Pulau Seraya), all of which have since merged to form Jurong Island. Current geographical landmarks such as Pulau Damar Laut and the strait of Selat Sembilan (now Selat Jurong) have also been included on the map.[
The two rivers of Jurong were mentioned again in 1848, when a second survey conducted by ]John Turnbull Thomson
John Turnbull Thomson (10 August 1821 – 16 October 1884) was a British civil engineer and artist who played an instrumental role in the development of the early infrastructure of nineteenth-century Singapore and New Zealand. He lived the last 2 ...
, described the original shape and settlements of Sungei Jurong and Sungei Pandan. Turnbull describes both rivers as, "large creeks" with settlements around the both.
However, in the case of Sungei Jurong, Thomson gives his description as such:
Before the damming of Sungei Jurong, the present-day site of Jurong Lake
Jurong Lake (; ms, Tasik Jurong ; ta, ஜூரோங் ஏரி) is a 70ha freshwater lake and reservoir located in the western region of Singapore formed with the damming of Sungei Jurong further downstream. The lake serves as a reservoir c ...
was once occupied by two streams that split at the junction of the river. These two streams have since ceased to exist. However, like what Thomson said, these bodies of water roughly marked the present day locations of Jurong East and West, at that time identified as Jurong and Peng Kang on colonial era maps respectively.[
Before its development in the 1960s, Jurong was left close to its pristine state after Singapore's founding in 1819. Although there were a few settlements around Jurong, most of the land was mainly uncharted territory. Swamps dominated the coastline of Jurong, yielding large amounts of wildlife such as ]mudskipper
Mudskippers are any of the 23 extant species of amphibious fish from the subfamily Oxudercinae of the goby family Oxudercidae. They are known for their unusual body shapes, preferences for semiaquatic habitats, limited terrestrial locomotion and ...
s and horseshoe crab
Horseshoe crabs are marine and brackish water arthropods of the family Limulidae and the only living members of the order Xiphosura. Despite their name, they are not true crabs or crustaceans: they are chelicerates, most closely related to arachn ...
s. A forest reserve of dipterocarp
Dipterocarpaceae is a family of 16 genera and about 695 known species of mainly tropical lowland rainforest trees. The family name, from the type genus ''Dipterocarpus'', is derived from Greek (''di'' = two, ''pteron'' = wing and ''karpos'' = fru ...
trees would have once stood inland behind the grove of rhizophora
''Rhizophora'' is a genus of tropical mangrove trees, sometimes collectively called true mangroves. The most notable species is the red mangrove (''Rhizophora mangle'') but some other species and a few natural hybrids are known. ''Rhizophora'' ...
trees along the coast. Low hills were mainly the highest elevated points around Jurong, although most of them were later levelled over the years.
This was evident, given the description made by Commodore Perry in his accounts of Jurong made during the Perry Expedition
The Perry Expedition ( ja, 黒船来航, , "Arrival of the Black Ships") was a diplomatic and military expedition during 1853–1854 to the Tokugawa Shogunate involving two separate voyages by warships of the United States Navy. The goals of thi ...
:
Territorial extent
In maps made by the British administration before Singapore's self-governance in 1959, the colonial era district (mukim) of Jurong was rather small, occupying what is today the present-day town of Bukit Batok
Bukit Batok, often abbreviated as Bt Batok, is a planning area and matured residential town located along the eastern boundary of the West Region of Singapore. Bukit Batok statistically ranks in as the 25th largest, the 12th most populous and ...
and Tengah. Jurong Mukim was earlier known as West Bukit Timak Mukim, the renaming to Juong Mukim is probably with reference the Jurong settlement located at the head of Jurong River and also located at the south-west corner of this Mukim. Other than that, most part of Jurong Mukim has very little historical basis for calling herself 'Jurong'.
Furthermore, many residents have often regarded the areas along the stretch of Jurong Road, especially the southern areas, as part of the extant of Jurong. Such areas include the colonial era districts (mukims) of Peng Kang (now Jurong West and Boon Lay), the southern portions of Choa Chu Kang (now Jurong West extension and NTU), Pandan (now split into Jurong East to the west and Clementi to the east) and Tuas (now Pioneer and the newly-reclaimed Tuas peninsula).[
]
Modern Jurong
Ecology
Today, most of what is left of the original pristine Jurong is restricted to the areas around the Pandan Reservoir
Pandan Reservoir (Simplified Chinese: 班丹蓄水池; Malay: ''Empangan Pandan'') is a reservoir located in the West Region of Singapore. Formed by damming the mouth of Sungei Pandan, it is the largest service reservoir in Singapore providing ...
and Sungei Pandan. Little traces of the dipterocarp forest still remain. The mangrove swamps today are now just a fraction of its former self, located at the mouth of Sungei Pandan. The untouched mangrove fringes still hold the last remnants of wildlife in Jurong. It is because of this that area remains a hotspot for nature enthusiasts and bird watchers to this day.[
]
Water bodies
Jurong is home to two prominent rivers, Sungei Jurong and Sungei Pandan, both of which flow into two larger water bodies, Jurong Lake and Pandan Reservoir
Pandan Reservoir (Simplified Chinese: 班丹蓄水池; Malay: ''Empangan Pandan'') is a reservoir located in the West Region of Singapore. Formed by damming the mouth of Sungei Pandan, it is the largest service reservoir in Singapore providing ...
respectively. The two rivers also source from Selat Jurong, a strait that faces south of mainland Singapore and north of Jurong Island.
The two rivers also have extensions that flow into the mainland portion of the region. Sungei Pandan has a western branch, Sungei Ulu Pandan, which flows from Jurong East into the town of Clementi before cutting off at Queenstown located east of Clementi. Sungei Jurong channels out of Jurong Lake via a stream located west of the lake and Jurong Canal located directly north of the lake. The canal also serves as the boundary line between the towns of Jurong East and West.[
]
Elevation points
The highest elevation point in the region is Jurong Hill
Jurong Hill (Chinese: 裕廊山; ms, Bukit Peropok) is a scenic hill situated in western Singapore off Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim. Originally, the hill is known as ''Bukit Peropok'' in Malay. It is enveloped in 15 hectares of lush greenery and stand ...
, which is located close to the centre of the industrial estate at Jurong (positioned north of Jurong Island) just adjacent to Jurong Bird Park
Jurong Bird Park is an aviary and tourist attraction in Jurong, Singapore. The largest such bird park in Asia, it covers an area of on the western slope of Jurong Hill, the highest point in the Jurong region. It is one of the parks managed by ...
.[
]
Geology
Jurong's unique locale lends to itself a special rock formation unlike any other in Singapore. Named the Jurong Formation The Jurong formation is a sedimentary rock formation that covers the south-west portion of the island of Singapore. The formation was laid down in the late Triassic to early or middle Jurassic geologic periods. It consists of dolomite, limestone, ...
, the sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...
deposits can trace its roots back to the late Triassic
The Late Triassic is the third and final epoch (geology), epoch of the Triassic geologic time scale, Period in the geologic time scale, spanning the time between annum, Ma and Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Middle Triassic Epoch ...
and early to middle Jurassic
The Middle Jurassic is the second epoch of the Jurassic Period. It lasted from about 174.1 to 163.5 million years ago. Fossils of land-dwelling animals, such as dinosaurs, from the Middle Jurassic are relatively rare, but geological formations co ...
periods.
Territorial extent
The name "Jurong" is often used to collectively describe the region's five main planning areas. However, the URA does not officially recognise all of these places as a single territorial entity. Since the gazetting of the 1998 Master Plan, the Authority has officially classified Jurong as five individual separate planning areas.[ When Jurong is split into these five contiguous parts, it forms Jurong East and West in the north and north-west, Boon Lay and Pioneer to the south and south-west and Tuas to the extreme west of the region. Each of these individual areas can yet be further divided into subzones, smaller ]subdistrict A subdistrict or sub-district is an administrative division that is generally smaller than a district.
Equivalents
* Administrative posts of East Timor, formerly Portuguese-language
* Kelurahan, in Indonesia
* Mukim, a township in Brunei, In ...
s that are a part of the larger planning area itself. If all five planning areas are combined, there would be a grand total of 34 subzones in Jurong.[
The boundaries of modern-day Jurong were first demarcated in the 1960 proposal of the new town. The planned town was to be located entirely south of Jurong Road, combining land that was once the colonial era districts (mukims) of Peng Kang, Pandan and the southernmost portion of Choa Chu Kang.][ As a result of this proposal, the government gazetted portions of land from these areas to increase the overall size of Jurong.][ These boundaries were later further defined with the introduction of the URA 1991 Concept Plan in September 1991.][
]
History
Before Raffles (c. 1600 – 1819)
The earliest known significance of Jurong can be traced back to 1595 on a maritime documentation of oriental trading routes. Titled "''Reys-gheschrift van de Navigation der Portugaloysers in Orienten''", the journal written by Dutch author Jan Huyghen van Linschoten
Jan Huygen van Linschoten (1563 – 8 February 1611) was a Dutch merchant, trader and historian.
He travelled extensively along the East Indies regions under Portuguese influence and served as the archbishop's secretary in Goa between 1583 ...
, names a certain "Selat Sembilan" that one must cross eastwards after reaching the southernmost end of the Strait of Malacca
The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, 500 mi (800 km) long and from 40 to 155 mi (65–250 km) wide, between the Malay Peninsula (Peninsular Malaysia) to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, connec ...
.[ This suggests that the straits near Jurong witnessed a significant role in the ancient maritime ]Silk Road
The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...
. Although not mapped by Linschoten, the location of Selat Sembilan was later identified in Philip Jackson's 1828 survey of Singapore. Despite much land-reclamation works along most coastal parts of Jurong and Tuas, Selat Sembilan still exists today as Selat Jurong, stretching along the entire coastline of the region.[
Even before the ]arrival
Arrival(s) or The Arrival(s) may refer to:
Film
* ''The Arrival'' (1991 film), an American science fiction horror film
* ''The Arrival'' (1996 film), an American-Mexican science fiction horror film
* ''Arrival'' (film), a 2016 American science ...
of Sir Stamford Raffles
Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles (5 July 1781 – 5 July 1826) was a British statesman who served as the Lieutenant-Governor of the Dutch East Indies between 1811 and 1816, and Lieutenant-Governor of Bencoolen between 1818 and 1824. He is ...
in 1819, small settlements had already been built along Jurong's coastal areas as well as the present-day site of Jurong Island, Pulau Damar Laut and Pulau Sembulan. Such squatters were inhabited by the native Orang laut
The Orang Laut are several seafaring ethnic groups and tribes living around Singapore, peninsular Malaysia and the Indonesian Riau Islands. The Orang Laut are commonly identified as the Orang Seletar from the Straits of Johor, but the term ma ...
, and there also immigrants from the nearby Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...
and Malaya.
Colonial era (1819 to 1942)
Earliest developments
Post-colonization, Jurong had a small population of inhabitants scattered along the banks of the area's two main rivers, Sungei Jurong and Sungei Pandan. It consisted mainly of a large Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
and Malay
Malay may refer to:
Languages
* Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore
** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century
** Indonesi ...
migrant population.
The majority of the Chinese population was Hokkien
The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages in ...
-speaking, immigrating from Anxi County
() is a County (People's Republic of China), county of the prefecture-level city of Quanzhou, in southern Fujian province, People's Republic of China. It lies adjacent to and directly north of Xiamen.
Anxi is well known for a number of varietie ...
in the province of Fujian
Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...
, China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. A Teochew demographic was also prevalent in Jurong. Originating from the City of Jieyang
Jieyang () is a prefecture-level city in eastern Guangdong Province (Yuedong), People's Republic of China, part of the Chaoshan region whose people speak Chaoshan Min distinct from neighbouring Yue speakers. It is historically important as th ...
, the Teochew-speaking population mainly settled along the westernmost portions of Jurong.[
Most of the Malays and Orang Laut in the area were natives of the land, settling in squatters and villages located along the coast of Jurong long before the founding of Singapore as a British colony in 1819. There were also other ethnic Malay groups that came down from the rest of the ]Malay Archipelago
The Malay Archipelago (Indonesian/Malay: , tgl, Kapuluang Malay) is the archipelago between mainland Indochina and Australia. It has also been called the " Malay world," "Nusantara", "East Indies", Indo-Australian Archipelago, Spices Archipe ...
who migrated from various parts of present-day Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
and Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
. However, the exact statistics concerning foreign Malays settling in Jurong after 1819 is not clear.
In a visit to the area in 1848, the then-Chief Surveyor of Singapore, John Turnbull Thomson
John Turnbull Thomson (10 August 1821 – 16 October 1884) was a British civil engineer and artist who played an instrumental role in the development of the early infrastructure of nineteenth-century Singapore and New Zealand. He lived the last 2 ...
, made one of the earliest accounts regarding human settlements in Jurong.
He described the demographics along Sungei Jurong as such:
Thomson also gave his description on the population along Sungei Pandan:
With the increase in population size over the years, the need for a mode of travel to and from the Town of Singapore, was necessary. Between 1852 and 1853, the first few portions of Jurong Road were paved to connect villages around Jurong to the metropolitan areas of Singapore Town and the rest of the island. This first portion of Jurong Road started from the seventh milestone of Bukit Timah Road ending along the head of Sungei Jurong. Although it isn't known when the rest of the road was paved, by 1936, the road stretched up to the district of Tuas.[
]
=An American expedition
=
In 1853, US Navy Commodore
Commodore may refer to:
Ranks
* Commodore (rank), a naval rank
** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom
** Commodore (United States)
** Commodore (Canada)
** Commodore (Finland)
** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore''
* Air commodore ...
Matthew C. Perry
Matthew Calbraith Perry (April 10, 1794 – March 4, 1858) was a commodore of the United States Navy who commanded ships in several wars, including the War of 1812 and the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). He played a leading role in the o ...
led a maritime expedition to Japan in an attempt to open up the country (then under self-imposed isolation) to the world for trade and the possible building of political and economic ties.
The fleet of the Perry Expedition
The Perry Expedition ( ja, 黒船来航, , "Arrival of the Black Ships") was a diplomatic and military expedition during 1853–1854 to the Tokugawa Shogunate involving two separate voyages by warships of the United States Navy. The goals of thi ...
stopped over at a few countries before reaching the Japanese archipelago
The Japanese archipelago (Japanese: 日本列島, ''Nihon rettō'') is a archipelago, group of 6,852 islands that form the country of Japan, as well as the Russian island of Sakhalin. It extends over from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to t ...
. One of the few docking locations during the trip was Singapore. This made it the second time that the United States had made a diplomatic presence on the island since the Exploring Expedition.
Perry's crew anchored their fleet of two frigates
A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat.
The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...
and two sloops-of-war
In the 18th century and most of the 19th, a sloop-of-war in the Royal Navy was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. The rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above; thus, the term ''sloop-of-war'' enc ...
along Selat Sembilan and Sungei Jurong, where they surveyed the surroundings of the strait and the river.
Wilhelm Heine
Peter Bernhard Wilhelm Heine, better known as Wilhelm (or William) Heine (January 30, 1827 in Dresden – October 5, 1885 in Lößnitz near Dresden) was a German-American artist, world traveller and writer as well as an officer during the Amer ...
and Eliphalet Brown, two of the official expedition's artists, were tasked at producing a lithograph depicting the villages along Sungei Jurong. The resulting image was one of the earliest illustrations of colonial-era Jurong.
The interesting point of the image is the scene of a forest fire shown in the background. This was common at the time as such raging wildfires were often rampant and common throughout most of Jurong in the mid-19th century.[ Another point worthy of note in the image is the ]United States flag
The national flag of the United States of America, often referred to as the ''American flag'' or the ''U.S. flag'', consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the ca ...
seen affixed on the stern
The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...
of the sampan
A sampan is a relatively flat-bottomed Chinese and Malay wooden boat. Some sampans include a small shelter on board and may be used as a permanent habitation on inland waters. The design closely resembles Western hard chine boats like th ...
in the foreground.[
]
Earliest industries
=Agriculture and aquaculture
=
Before the early 1960s, small and large plantations alike dominated the area, which produced and harvested crops such as pineapple
The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been cultivated for many centuri ...
, pepper
Pepper or peppers may refer to:
Food and spice
* Piperaceae or the pepper family, a large family of flowering plant
** Black pepper
* ''Capsicum'' or pepper, a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae
** Bell pepper
** Chili ...
, gambier and nutmeg
Nutmeg is the seed or ground spice of several species of the genus ''Myristica''. ''Myristica fragrans'' (fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg) is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fruit: nutmeg, from its seed, an ...
, thus providing key sources of income for the people of the district. However, in the early period of time, the main produce for export by the plantations of Jurong was gambier. Gambier's practical uses and medicinal properties made the plant-crop significantly valuable and gambier plantations proved to become profitable for the Chinese kangchu-owners situated in the area, the local communities and other local and foreign plantation owners. In 1855, the Municipal Committee of the British colonial government reported that there were 20 of such legally-recognised gambier plantations existing within Jurong. However, this figure is not entirely accurate given the fact that many illegal ones were also set up in the area.[
]Rubber
Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...
was also a popular agricultural industry in Jurong at that time and was regarded as a strong competitor to the gambier plantation businesses and firms that were flourishing and expanding in the district. By the first half of the 20th century, the practices of rubber-tapping and the setting up of rubber plantations overtook the role of planting and harvesting gambier, an agricultural activity that once thrived in Jurong. A notable example of a business dealing in gambier that shifted to the rubber-plantation sector was the plantation firm that belonged to Chinese business-magnate Chew Boon Lay. The large amount of land that his plantation stood on was often well-associated with his name. Today, this area is known as Boon Lay Place and is a small subzone that is enclaved within the new town of Jurong West.
Aside from the profitable reliance on cash-crops and large plantations, fishing was also another prominent form of income for the locals staying in Jurong, although this job aspect was mostly handled and dealt with by the local Malay and Orang Laut population, most of whom chose to live along the coastlines of Jurong or had already settled there for many generations. Fishing was also conducted along the two of the more prominent rivers of Jurong at Sungei Jurong and Sungei Pandan respectively.
Numerous prawn farms were also set up along these two rivers where such crustacean species naturally thrived. By the 1950s, 500 acres of land in Jurong was specifically designated for prawn-farming in Jurong. This was roughly half of the total amount of land used for prawn farms located all over Singapore at that time.[
]
=Manufacturing and processing
=
For some time before the period of rapid industrialisation occurring in Jurong throughout the 1960s, Jurong was already a host to several businesses in the heavy industry (primarily dealing with construction and manufacturing), most notably, the brickwork industrial sector. Local businesses involving in brick manufacturing and earthenware production were largely set up around Yunnan
Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...
in Jurong West, where the soil conditions there could yield much clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
and terracotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, a ...
. Although almost all of these factories and industries closed down over the years (most were shut down by the late 1990s and early 2000s), the brickwork industry remains strong (primarily in the form of its past and its legacy) in Jurong even to this day.
The earliest brick factories in Jurong emerged in the 1920s and exported large quantities of the building material to construction sites around Singapore as well as to Malaya (now Malaysia), with a notable brick factory in the area being the Jurong Brickworks. First set up in the 1930s,[ Jurong Brickworks was one of the largest privately owned brick manufacturers and suppliers in Singapore. During the company's heyday and booming peak all throughout the 1970s, it manufactured more than three million bricks every month. Jurong Brickworks was eventually shut down in 2005 and the entire manufacturing plant was demolished in that same year as well.][
Another notable earthenware-production business located in Jurong is the Thow Kwang Dragon Kiln. Set up by Chinese immigrants in the 1940s, this pottery manufacturer, along with its neighbouring counterpart, the Jalan Bahar Clay Studios, continues to exist to this day and remain as the only possessor of a pair of dragon kilns in Singapore. Although located in an area that is traditionally a part of Jurong, the kilns are technically located next to ]Nanyang Technological University
The Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is a national research university in Singapore. It is the second oldest autonomous university in the country and is considered as one of the most prestigious universities in the world by various inte ...
, which is situated in the Western Water Catchment
The Western Water Catchment is a planning area located in the West Region of Singapore. The planning area borders Tuas and Pioneer to its south, Sungei Kadut, Choa Chu Kang and Tengah to its east, Jurong West to its southeast, Lim Chu Kang to ...
.[
]
=Similar business ventures
=
Aside from his plantation, Chew Boon Lay also owned one of the earliest factories (a manufacturing plant) that was located in Jurong. During its time in business-operation from 1950 to 1958, the manufacturing plant produced a wide range of canned goods
Canning is a method of food preservation in which food is processed and sealed in an airtight container ( jars like Mason jars, and steel and tin cans). Canning provides a shelf life that typically ranges from one to five years, although ...
(foodstuff) that ranged from kaya
Kaya may refer to:
People
*Kaya (given name)
*Kaya (surname)
Places
*Kaya, Burkina Faso, a town in Burkina Faso, capital of the department
*Kaya Airport, serving the town
* Kaya Department, a department or commune of Sanmatenga Province in centr ...
to curry
A curry is a dish with a sauce seasoned with spices, mainly associated with South Asian cuisine. In southern India, leaves from the curry tree may be included.
There are many varieties of curry. The choice of spices for each dish in tradit ...
and even peanut butter
Peanut butter is a food paste or spread made from ground, dry-roasted peanuts. It commonly contains additional ingredients that modify the taste or texture, such as salt, sweeteners, or emulsifiers. Peanut butter is consumed in many countri ...
. It was located along Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim
Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim () is a road located in Boon Lay, Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north ...
and was opposite from the location of where Jurong Bird Park
Jurong Bird Park is an aviary and tourist attraction in Jurong, Singapore. The largest such bird park in Asia, it covers an area of on the western slope of Jurong Hill, the highest point in the Jurong region. It is one of the parks managed by ...
is located at now. This same building was also a temporary location for the management offices of the Jurong Town Corporation in 1968.[
]
Second World War (1941–45)
101 Special Training School
Following the invasion of Thailand in the beginning of December in 1941, the Imperial Japanese Army
The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...
was rapidly heading southwards down the Malay Peninsula
The Malay Peninsula (Malay: ''Semenanjung Tanah Melayu'') is a peninsula in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area ...
towards Singapore. It was rather obvious, by then, to many that a Japanese military assault on the island was nearly imminent. In light of the oncoming threat, the Oriental Mission of the UK's Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...
chose to set up a training institution/school in Singapore to assist and train members of possible anti-Japanese resistance movements throughout Japanese-occupied British Malaya and, later, Singapore.
One proposed site for the training base was at Pulau Ubin
Pulau Ubin, also simply known as Ubin, is an island situated in the north east of Singapore, to the west of Pulau Tekong. The granite quarry used to be supported by a few thousand settlers on Pulau Ubin in the 1960s, but only about 38 villagers ...
. However, the suggestion was dropped for a number of reasons. Issues such as the difficulty of clearing thick jungle foliage, the cost of building and developing the training base's site, the lack of access to freshwater and the risk of contagious malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...
and other diseases made Pulau Ubin unsuitable for a possible location. Later on, during the formation of Singapore Armed Forces, the proposed site for the training bases are located at Pasir Laba
SAFTI is a subzone of the Jurong West planning area of Singapore. It is home to the Pasir Laba Camp. It is also the training ground and a live-firing area for Singapore Armed Forces known as SAFTI Live Firing Area which is west of Pasir Laba Camp ...
and Pulau Tekong
Pulau may refer to:
*Pulau virus (PuV), a novel strain of Nelson Bay orthoreovirus species
*Pulau River, a river of West Papua and Papua New Guinea
See also
*List of islands of Malaysia – "Pulau" means "island" in the Malay language
*Pulao (di ...
respectively. Pasir Laba
SAFTI is a subzone of the Jurong West planning area of Singapore. It is home to the Pasir Laba Camp. It is also the training ground and a live-firing area for Singapore Armed Forces known as SAFTI Live Firing Area which is west of Pasir Laba Camp ...
was the first to be built during the formation of SAF, and set up the live firing zone in the west. Pulau Tekong was the second to be built.
The SOE eventually settled on a small and isolated island known as Tanjong Balai. Located at the mouth of Sungei Jurong, the island was where a single man-made structure, consisting of a lone bungalow that was once owned by Jewish businessman Joseph Brook David, was located. Apart from the bungalow, the island was also well-hidden amongst the canopy of secondary-type rainforest and what was even better was the convenience of accessing the location either by a boat or by a well-hidden path in the jungle.
With the SOE's settling down at Tanjong Balai, the Number 101 Special Training School was created and mainly trained its personnel in the various fields of sabotage, reconnaissance and espionage to prepare them for resistance efforts against Japanese occupation forces.
With the invading Japanese military pushing into Singapore by February in 1942, the training base was quickly closed down with the destruction of related documents and the abandonment of the training base Tanjong Balai. A new SOE training base was later established in Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
in the former capital city of Myanmar at Rangoon
Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...
.
Today, the island of Tanjong Balai and the training base located there is largely unheard-of by many modern-day Singaporeans. The island has since been subsumed by Jurong Port after further land-reclamation works were carried out in the 1980s to expand the harbour.[
]
Modern history (1960–present)
The need to industrialise
Post-war Singapore was plagued with much economic and financial trouble. A largely-uneducated population and the then-chronic lack of jobs meant that the amount of available manpower in the country was quite scarce. By the end of the decade of the 1950s, the total unemployment rate in post-war Singapore stood at about 14%, which encompassed an estimated 200,000 people out of the whole population at that time. To add on to the problems of widespread unemployment and the subsequent general poverty of the people that followed, the government had to tackle the issue of the then-high birth-rate in the country, which increased every year by around 4%.[
With the ]Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
already present and the then-constant threat of communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
spreading from Malaya, the country's Legislative Assembly was being pressured to keep the British-ruled crown colony
A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony administered by The Crown within the British Empire. There was usually a Governor, appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the UK Government, with or without the assistance of a local Counci ...
financially stable and economically strong.
In 1959, the People's Action Party
The People's Action Party (abbreviation: PAP) is a major conservative centre-right political party in Singapore and is one of the three contemporary political parties represented in Parliament, alongside the opposition Workers' Party (WP) and ...
emerged victorious in the first general election held in a self-governing Singapore. A crucial element of the party's agenda shortly after coming to power was the promise of more and better employment opportunities and jobs for the people and the need to build up and strengthen the weak economy of a newly-developing self-governing nation.[ Thus, the new PAP-led government had a desperate and urgent need to resolve the issue of Singapore's weak economy and Dr Goh Keng Swee, then the finance minister of Singapore, was quickly put in charge of this challenging task.
Dr Goh determined that the only way to improve and strengthen Singapore's weak economy was through industrialisation. He envisioned a major industrial town in Singapore that would have modern industries mainly based in the manufacturing sector, such as shipyards, steelworks, chemical plants and other factories. Although such an idea was not the first of its kind, Dr Goh's plans for an industrial estate in Jurong were much more ambitious and wider-reaching than other previously-made proposals.][
]
Jurong Industrial Estate
On the 4th of July in 1960, the Legislative Assembly of Singapore
The Legislative Assembly of the State of Singapore was the legislature of the Government of Singapore from 1955 to 1965 and is the predecessor of the Parliament of Singapore. The Rendel Constitution, proposed in 1953, sought to give the local ...
announced a proposal to construct a new industrial town in Jurong.[ The entire project, which totalled $45.7 million in cost, begun almost immediately after the proposal's announcement, with the immediate processes of planning and designing taking place in August in that same year.][
For Jurong's industrialisation, with Singapore's request for assistance with regard to economic development, the United Nations Industrial Survey Mission designated Dutch economic/financial advisor Dr Albert Winsemius to take charge of the project for the economic development of Singapore. The same UN mission also deployed Frenchman Mr P. Schereschewsky to survey Jurong's suitability for an industrial town.][
In 1961, the Economic and Development Board (the EDB) was formed to spearhead Singapore's industrialisation and ]earthworks
Earthworks may refer to:
Construction
*Earthworks (archaeology), human-made constructions that modify the land contour
* Earthworks (engineering), civil engineering works created by moving or processing quantities of soil
*Earthworks (military), m ...
for the construction and development of Jurong's industrial estate began in that same year. A year later, in 1962, the then-finance minister
A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation.
A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...
of Singapore, Dr Goh Keng Swee
Goh Keng Swee (; 6 October 1918 – 14 May 2010), born Robert Goh Keng Swee, was a Singaporean politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore between 1973 and 1985. Goh is widely recognised as one of the founding fathers of Singa ...
, helped to lay and set the foundation stone
The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure.
Over time ...
for the newly established National Iron and Steel Mills, the first factory in the new industrial estate (the factory has since been renamed to become NatSteel and the company is now a subsidiary of Tata Steel of India).[ At that time, many Singaporeans doubted the chances of success concerning Dr Goh's ambitious plan to develop the area for industrialisation and gave it the unflattering nickname of "Goh's Folly". They were quickly proven wrong, however, as 24 factories (of various types) were soon established in 1963. In May 1965, Jurong Port became operational.
In 1968, the Jurong Town Corporation was created to direct and manage of Jurong's development. By this time, a total of 14.78 square-kilometres of industrial land had been prepared with 153 factories fully functioning and being up-and-running and 46 more being constructed and set up. With Singapore's economy constantly growing and developing ever more rapidly, finding more space for newer businesses and industries in the future is an ever-present and constant challenge. Seven ]islet
An islet is a very small, often unnamed island. Most definitions are not precise, but some suggest that an islet has little or no vegetation and cannot support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/or hard coral; may be permanent ...
s off the southern coast of Jurong were merged to create the 30 square-kilometre Jurong Island, which is where most of the oil
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...
, chemical
A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wi ...
and petrochemical
Petrochemicals (sometimes abbreviated as petchems) are the chemical products obtained from petroleum by refining. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sou ...
factories, manufacturing industries and plants in Singapore are located at. The construction and development of Jurong Island began in the early part of the 1990s and is scheduled to be completed by 2010 (as of 2016, much of the development works have been completed, with some newer developments about to commence or are still ongoing). A number of heavy-type industrial companies and firms, such as DuPont and Teijin Polycarbonate, amongst others, began their business operations there in the later part of the 1990s. The Jurong Island Causeway provides the only land-based link to Jurong Island from mainland Singapore. All forms of access to the island is heavily restricted ever since the September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
in 2001. An entry/exit security pass is required for all employees working at Jurong Island and cameras and all other recording equipment are banned from being transported into the island.
Townships of Jurong
The first few low-rise flats in Jurong Town emerged in the precinct of Taman Jurong
Taman Jurong is a residential precinct in Jurong West, Singapore. It is one of the oldest residential precincts in Singapore and a division of Jurong GRC, with the area's HDB flats under the management of Jurong-Clementi Town Council and Tharma ...
between 1963 and 1964, developed by the Housing and Development Board
The Housing & Development Board (HDB) (; ms, Lembaga Perumahan dan Pembangunan; ta, வீடமைப்பு வளர்ச்சிக் கழகம்) or often referred to as the Housing Board, is a statutory board under the M ...
. Around this time, other notable housing estates, such as Boon Lay, began breaking ground as well. Despite the new residential developments, Jurong lacked a growing population. Reasons were largely due to the location of Jurong and the lack of infrastructure around the region at the time.
The development of Jurong East and West started in the 1979 when estates such as Taman Jurong
Taman Jurong is a residential precinct in Jurong West, Singapore. It is one of the oldest residential precincts in Singapore and a division of Jurong GRC, with the area's HDB flats under the management of Jurong-Clementi Town Council and Tharma ...
, Boon Lay Place
Boon Lay (, ta, பூன் லே) is a neighbourhood located in the town of Jurong West in the West Region of Singapore. Its borders very roughly correspond to the URA subzone of Boon Lay Place, situated within the Jurong West Planning Are ...
, Bukit Batok
Bukit Batok, often abbreviated as Bt Batok, is a planning area and matured residential town located along the eastern boundary of the West Region of Singapore. Bukit Batok statistically ranks in as the 25th largest, the 12th most populous and ...
, Bukit Gombak
Bukit Gombak is a subzone of Bukit Batok, Singapore. It is a hilly neighbourhood in the west-central area of the Southeast Asian city-state of Singapore. In the Malay language, ''bukit'' means hill and ''gombak'' a bunch or collection of somethi ...
, Hong Kah
Hong Kah is a residential precinct in Jurong West, Singapore. It is bounded by the Pan Island Expressway, PIE, Corporation Road, Jurong Canal Drive, Jurong East Avenue 1 and Jurong Town Hall Road. It is named after the former 'Hong Kah Village'.
...
, Teban Gardens
Teban Gardens is a residential precinct located in Jurong East, Singapore.
Immediately north of Pandan Reservoir, it comprises exclusively public housing built by the JTC Corporation and Housing and Development Board.
Geography
The Teban Gard ...
and Yuhua were built, mostly due to the resettlement of Hong Kah and surrounding villages. Boon Lay Place, Taman Jurong and Hong Kah formed Jurong West New Town. Yuhua, Teban Gardens, Bukit Batok and Bukit Gombak formed Jurong East New Town.
In 1982, Jurong West New Town started expanding as Jurong West Extension, which saw the realignment of the PIE
A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts ( pecan pie), brown sugar ( sugar pie), swe ...
to make it go through the southern boundary of present-day NTU, while converting the former section into Jurong West Avenue 2 and renaming the original Upper Jurong Road into Jurong West Avenue 4. Pioneer Road was extended North wards from present-day Upper Jurong Road as Pioneer Road North to the new PIE
A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts ( pecan pie), brown sugar ( sugar pie), swe ...
exit, which signalled the start of the development of Jurong West Extension (Yunnan
Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...
, Pioneer
Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land.
In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and de ...
and Gek Poh).[ The N9 estate was the first to be built and the N6 estate was the last, in the early 2000s. The MRT Line was extended from Lakeside to Boon Lay in 1990 and again to Pioneer in 2009.
]
Spyros disaster
On 12 October 1978, a Greek oil tanker, ''Spyros'', exploded at Jurong Shipyard
Jurong () is a major Region, geographical region located at the south-westernmost point of the West Region, Singapore, West Region of Singapore. Although mostly vaguely defined, the region's extent roughly covers the Planning Areas of Singapore, ...
, killing more than 70 people in the immediate vicinity. The result was one of the worst man-made disasters/calamities since the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
in Singapore and the worst industrial accident since the country gained full independence in 1965.
Infrastructure
Transportation
Private
Jurong is well connected to the rest of Singapore by road, with Kranji Expressway
The Kranji Expressway (Abbreviation: KJE) in Singapore connects from the BKE in Bukit Panjang and travels south-west to join with the PIE in Jurong West. Construction of the expressway started in 1990 and was completed in 1994. The expressway i ...
linking them to the northern part of Singapore, Pan Island Expressway
The Pan Island Expressway (Abbreviated as: PIE) is the oldest and longest expressway in Singapore. It is also Singapore's longest road. The expressway runs from the East Coast Parkway near Changi Airport in the east to Tuas in the west and ha ...
linking them to the Eastern part of Singapore and the Ayer Rajah Expressway
The Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE) extends from the western end of the Marina Coastal Expressway in the south of Singapore to Tuas in the west near the Tuas Second Link to Malaysia. Together with the Marina Coastal Expressway and the East Coast ...
linking them to the south-eastern part of Singapore. Clementi Avenue 6 and Jurong Town Hall Road complement the 3 expressways, topping off the well-built road connection from Jurong to all parts of the island.
Mass Rapid Transit (MRT)
The region is well-connected to the MRT
MRT may refer to:
Transport Rapid Transit Systems
* Mass Rapid Transit (disambiguation)
* MRT (Singapore) or Mass Rapid Transit, Singapore
* MRT (Bangkok) or Metropolitan Rapid Transit, Thailand
* Manila Metro Rail Transit System, Philippine ...
system with Jurong East and Chinese Garden
The Chinese garden is a landscape garden style which has evolved over three thousand years. It includes both the vast gardens of the Chinese emperors and members of the imperial family, built for pleasure and to impress, and the more intimate ...
serving Jurong East. Lakeside, Boon Lay and Pioneer
Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land.
In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and de ...
serving Jurong West
Jurong West is a planning area and residential town located in the West Region of Singapore. Jurong West shares boundaries with Tengah in the north, Jurong East in the east, Boon Lay and Pioneer in the south, and Western Water Catchment in t ...
and Joo Koon
Joo Koon (裕群) is an industrial estate in Jurong of the West Region of Singapore. East of Joo Koon is Lok Yang and South is Gul. Joo Koon consists mostly of factories.
It is bounded by Upper Jurong Road, the Pan Island Expressway, Jalan Ahm ...
, Gul Circle
Gul Circle (or Gul) is an area in Jurong Industrial Estate which is the biggest industrial estate in Singapore. Gul is the home to many heavy industries in Singapore. It is bounded by Ayer Rajah Expressway (Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim), Benoi Road, Pion ...
, Tuas West Road, Tuas Link serving Pioneer
Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land.
In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and de ...
& Tuas
Tuas is a planning area located within the West Region of Singapore. It is bounded by the Western Water Catchment to its north, Pioneer to its east and the Straits of Johor to its west. Tuas also shares a maritime boundary with the Western Island ...
industrial areas.
In the future, the 20-kilometre Jurong Region MRT Line will help to further connect commuters to places in Jurong and the rest of Singapore.
Bus
Jurong is served by public bus services originating from 4 interchanges and 1 bus depot, namely the Jurong East , Boon Lay , Joo Koon
Joo Koon (裕群) is an industrial estate in Jurong of the West Region of Singapore. East of Joo Koon is Lok Yang and South is Gul. Joo Koon consists mostly of factories.
It is bounded by Upper Jurong Road, the Pan Island Expressway, Jalan Ahm ...
& Tuas
Tuas is a planning area located within the West Region of Singapore. It is bounded by the Western Water Catchment to its north, Pioneer to its east and the Straits of Johor to its west. Tuas also shares a maritime boundary with the Western Island ...
bus interchanges and Soon Lee Bus Depot.
Economy
Commercial
The more notable shopping malls in Jurong are Jurong Point Shopping Mall
Jurong Point (Chinese:裕廊坊) is a large regional shopping mall in the precinct of Jurong West Central in Jurong West, Singapore. It is next to Boon Lay MRT station and Boon Lay Bus Interchange. It is currently the largest shopping mall in S ...
in Pioneer
Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land.
In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and de ...
and IMM in Yuhua.
The largest suburban mall in Singapore, Jurong Point Shopping Mall is well-accessible by bus services from all the residential precincts of Jurong except Yuhua and Teban Gardens
Teban Gardens is a residential precinct located in Jurong East, Singapore.
Immediately north of Pandan Reservoir, it comprises exclusively public housing built by the JTC Corporation and Housing and Development Board.
Geography
The Teban Gard ...
. This mall targets young adults and families with stalls selling fashion, food and beverages, sports, entertainment and lifestyle products. It also serves the elderly population with body-wellness stores and healthcare centres located at level 4 and 5 of the mall. It is well linked to the Boon Lay MRT station
Boon Lay MRT station is an above-ground Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station on the East West line in Jurong West, Singapore. Located in Jurong West Central, Boon Lay station is one of the three stations that serve Jurong West New Town; the othe ...
and Boon Lay Bus Interchange
Boon Lay Bus Interchange is an air-conditioned bus interchange located in Jurong West Central, in the western part of Singapore. It is situated within Jurong Point and integrated with the nearby Boon Lay MRT station. This interchange serves a ...
.
The largest outlet mall
An outlet store, factory outlet or factory shop is a brick and mortar or online store in which manufacturers sell their stock directly to the public. Traditionally, a factory outlet was a store attached to a factory or warehouse, sometimes allowin ...
in Singapore, IMM is located within walking distance and visible from Jurong East MRT station
Jurong East MRT station is an elevated Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) interchange station on the North South (NSL) (which terminates at this station) and East West (EWL) lines in Jurong East, Singapore, operated by SMRT Trains. It is located at th ...
. The mall contains a Kopitiam
A ''kopitiam'' or ''kopi tiam'' () is a type of coffee shop mostly found in parts of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Southern Thailand patronised for meals and beverages, and traditionally operated by the Chinese community of t ...
food court on Level 3, many furniture stores and other retail stores. These include a Popular
Popularity or social status is the quality of being well liked, admired or well known to a particular group.
Popular may also refer to:
In sociology
* Popular culture
* Popular fiction
* Popular music
* Popular science
* Populace, the total ...
Bookstore, one of Singapore's largest distributors of print and stationery products, and a Daiso
is a large franchise of 100-yen shops founded in Japan. The headquarters are in Higashihiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture.
Daiso has a range of over 100,000 products, of which over 40 percent are imported goods, many of them from China, South Ko ...
department store, which sells decorative items and lifestyle products at low prices. There is a Giant Hypermarket
GCH Retail (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (doing business as Giant Hypermarket) is a hypermarket and retailer chain now mainly in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Cambodia, and formerly Indonesia and Vietnam. In 2016, Giant was the largest supermarket chain ...
at level 1 of the mall. A free shuttle bus service that ferries visitors to the mall from JCube
JCube is a shopping centre located in Jurong East, Singapore. It opens from 10 am to 10 pm and is home to Singapore’s first Olympic-size ice rink and the first IMAX theatre in the suburbs. It was built on the former site of the Jurong Enterta ...
& Westgate malls (near to Jurong East MRT Station
Jurong East MRT station is an elevated Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) interchange station on the North South (NSL) (which terminates at this station) and East West (EWL) lines in Jurong East, Singapore, operated by SMRT Trains. It is located at th ...
) has stopped operations since 1 January 2017. It has been replaced by J-walk, a pedestrian network that connects shopping malls and hospitals to the Jurong East MRT Station.
There are other shopping malls in Jurong, but are only well known within the precinct they are located in. Such malls include Hong Kah Point in Hong Kah
Hong Kah is a residential precinct in Jurong West, Singapore. It is bounded by the Pan Island Expressway, PIE, Corporation Road, Jurong Canal Drive, Jurong East Avenue 1 and Jurong Town Hall Road. It is named after the former 'Hong Kah Village'.
...
and Taman Jurong Shopping Centre in Taman Jurong
Taman Jurong is a residential precinct in Jurong West, Singapore. It is one of the oldest residential precincts in Singapore and a division of Jurong GRC, with the area's HDB flats under the management of Jurong-Clementi Town Council and Tharma ...
.
Tourism
* Singapore Science Centre
* Snow City
*Singapore Discovery Centre
The Singapore Discovery Centre (SDC) is an 'edutainment' and tourist attraction by the Ministry of Defence of Singapore in Jurong West, Singapore. The centre includes exhibits which display the history of Singapore as well as an insight on the ...
*Singapore Army Museum
*Jurong Bird Park
Jurong Bird Park is an aviary and tourist attraction in Jurong, Singapore. The largest such bird park in Asia, it covers an area of on the western slope of Jurong Hill, the highest point in the Jurong region. It is one of the parks managed by ...
(to be ceased and relocated to Mandai by 2023)
*Jurong Lake Gardens
*ABC Waters @ Jurong Lake (largest man-made floating wetlands with a total area of 3,850 sqm)
Education
Jurong Junior College
Jurong Junior College (JJC) was a junior college located in Jurong West, Singapore. It was the ninth junior college to be established by the Ministry of Education of Singapore.
History
Jurong Junior College was first situated at West Coast ...
is located within the region, in between Hong Kah
Hong Kah is a residential precinct in Jurong West, Singapore. It is bounded by the Pan Island Expressway, PIE, Corporation Road, Jurong Canal Drive, Jurong East Avenue 1 and Jurong Town Hall Road. It is named after the former 'Hong Kah Village'.
...
and Boon Lay, although it was closed in 2019. There is at least 1 primary school and 1 secondary school in each precinct of Jurong including the Shuqun Primary School established in 1925 in Jurong West. Additionally, River Valley High School is located within Boon Lay, in close proximity to Jurong Point.
Politics
Jurong used to be an independent political constituency in the 1959 general elections. Chia Thye Poh
Chia Thye Poh (born 1941) is a Singaporean former politician. A former member of the Barisan Sosialis, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Jurong SMC between 1963 and 1966.
A leftist populist, Chia is most notable for being detained ...
represented the constituency in parliament between 1963 and 1966. Then, Boon Lay Constituency was carved out in 1976 and Hong Kah Constituency in 1984, forming four separate constituencies. Hong Kah Constituency eventually became a GRC that consisted of Nanyang
Nanyang is the romanization of two common Chinese place names. It may refer to:
Written as 南洋 (Southern Ocean)
* Nanyang (region), a Chinese term denoting the Southeast Asian lands surrounding the South China Sea
;China
* Nanyang Fleet, Qing ...
, Hong Kah
Hong Kah is a residential precinct in Jurong West, Singapore. It is bounded by the Pan Island Expressway, PIE, Corporation Road, Jurong Canal Drive, Jurong East Avenue 1 and Jurong Town Hall Road. It is named after the former 'Hong Kah Village'.
...
, Gek Poh and Bukit Batok
Bukit Batok, often abbreviated as Bt Batok, is a planning area and matured residential town located along the eastern boundary of the West Region of Singapore. Bukit Batok statistically ranks in as the 25th largest, the 12th most populous and ...
in 1988. Teban Gardens
Teban Gardens is a residential precinct located in Jurong East, Singapore.
Immediately north of Pandan Reservoir, it comprises exclusively public housing built by the JTC Corporation and Housing and Development Board.
Geography
The Teban Gard ...
, Pioneer
Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land.
In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and de ...
, Yuhua and Taman Jurong
Taman Jurong is a residential precinct in Jurong West, Singapore. It is one of the oldest residential precincts in Singapore and a division of Jurong GRC, with the area's HDB flats under the management of Jurong-Clementi Town Council and Tharma ...
were under Bukit Timah Constituency and the N9 region of Nanyang
Nanyang is the romanization of two common Chinese place names. It may refer to:
Written as 南洋 (Southern Ocean)
* Nanyang (region), a Chinese term denoting the Southeast Asian lands surrounding the South China Sea
;China
* Nanyang Fleet, Qing ...
was under Jurong Constituency all that while.
In 2001, there were major changes in the political constituencies of Jurong. Boon Lay Constituency, together with Teban Gardens
Teban Gardens is a residential precinct located in Jurong East, Singapore.
Immediately north of Pandan Reservoir, it comprises exclusively public housing built by the JTC Corporation and Housing and Development Board.
Geography
The Teban Gard ...
and Pioneer
Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land.
In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and de ...
, were absorbed into the expanded West Coast GRC
The West Coast Group Representation Constituency is a five-member Group Representation Constituency (GRC) located in the western area of Singapore. The five divisions consists: Ayer Rajah-Gek Poh, West Coast, Boon Lay, Nanyang and Telok Blangah ...
. Hong Kah Constituency was re-designed to include towns of Chua Chu Kang
Choa Chu Kang, alternatively spelt as Chua Chu Kang and often abbreviated as CCK, is a planning area and residential town located at the north-westernmost point of the West Region of Singapore. The town shares borders with Sungei Kadut to ...
(Limbang and Yew Tee) and Bukit Gombak
Bukit Gombak is a subzone of Bukit Batok, Singapore. It is a hilly neighbourhood in the west-central area of the Southeast Asian city-state of Singapore. In the Malay language, ''bukit'' means hill and ''gombak'' a bunch or collection of somethi ...
and only Nanyang
Nanyang is the romanization of two common Chinese place names. It may refer to:
Written as 南洋 (Southern Ocean)
* Nanyang (region), a Chinese term denoting the Southeast Asian lands surrounding the South China Sea
;China
* Nanyang Fleet, Qing ...
and Gek Poh remained in the constituency, this time including the N9 region of Nanyang
Nanyang is the romanization of two common Chinese place names. It may refer to:
Written as 南洋 (Southern Ocean)
* Nanyang (region), a Chinese term denoting the Southeast Asian lands surrounding the South China Sea
;China
* Nanyang Fleet, Qing ...
. Jurong Constituency was abolished. Hong Kah
Hong Kah is a residential precinct in Jurong West, Singapore. It is bounded by the Pan Island Expressway, PIE, Corporation Road, Jurong Canal Drive, Jurong East Avenue 1 and Jurong Town Hall Road. It is named after the former 'Hong Kah Village'.
...
and Bukit Batok
Bukit Batok, often abbreviated as Bt Batok, is a planning area and matured residential town located along the eastern boundary of the West Region of Singapore. Bukit Batok statistically ranks in as the 25th largest, the 12th most populous and ...
were regrouped into the newly created Jurong GRC, along with Yuhua and Taman Jurong
Taman Jurong is a residential precinct in Jurong West, Singapore. It is one of the oldest residential precincts in Singapore and a division of Jurong GRC, with the area's HDB flats under the management of Jurong-Clementi Town Council and Tharma ...
. As such, the entire political system of Jurong was changed with 3 GRCs as a result.
10 years later, in 2011, Gek Poh, Yuhua and Pioneer
Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land.
In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and de ...
were crafted out from each of the three GRCs to become SMCs. In total, there are now six constituencies in Jurong.
Nonetheless, though divided into six separate constituencies, all the precincts are collectively managed by the PAP and known as Jurong.
References
Notes
Sources
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External links
Southwest CDC Website
{{Authority control
West Region, Singapore
New towns in Singapore
Industrial estates in Singapore
Places in Singapore