Singapore Botanic Gardens – UNESCO Heritage Site

Singapore Botanic Gardens was inscribed as a UNESCO Heritage site on 4 July 2015. The whole of Singapore was in a celebratory mood when it was awarded this accolade.

During weekends, this park is full of locals doing their jogging, running, walking, dog walking, children enjoying themselves and people having a picnic. If you are a traveller to this “little red dot” (Singapore) and you love to visit a park, then you should try to pay a visit to this park. Besides, it is also a great way for family bonding. As for me, I used this opportunity to test run the camera function of iPhone XS.

This garden is huge, about 74 hectares and it is near Singapore shopping area of Orchard Road. The garden was established in 1859 (yup, more than 150-years-old) and the layout of the garden is heavily influenced by the English Garden style and landscape. Some of the buildings in the garden depict the Anglo-Malayan Plantation style houses (black and white exterior) such as the Burkill Hall.

The above map is from National Parks Board

The interesting facts about Singapore Botanic Gardens that make you want to visit this place are as follow:-

• Singapore’s first UNESCO World Heritage site nominee

This is the first and only tropical botanic garden on UNESCO World Heritage’s list. The Singapore government had started the inscription bid process in 2010 and formally submitted the Nominee Dossier in 2014, and finally inscribed in 2015. This is the first and only UNESCO Heritage site in Singapore and hopefully, there will be more to come.

• Celebrity/VIP Orchid Names

There are a few VIPs and celebrities named orchids in the Burkill Hall. Currently, there is an upgrading in the Burkill Hall, so we could only see a few of the celebrity/VIP’s orchid exhibited there.

• Get to see real live actions of wildlife animals

Don’t worry, those are not man-eating creatures. They are the swans, turtles, fish, roosters and monitor lizard. I was lucky to be able to meet the monitor lizard on this recent visit. How to spot the special creature? Easy! Just look out for a group of people gather around and busy snapping photos, haha…

• learn about different species of flora and fauna

This also served as a learning journey for us to learn about the species’ names. Besides, who wouldn’t like to see those beautiful flowers and enjoy a beautiful day among the flowers and trees? Let’s take a visual tour of the flowers that I had encountered during my recent trip.

• Music appreciation during the weekends

Most of the weekends, there will be musicians performing on the Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage. Visitors can bring their mats and join the performers for an afternoon of great music in a beautiful setting.

With all the above, I hope you will make time to pay a visit to this beautiful tropical garden if you happen to be in Singapore. If you are a local resident here, walking in this garden is great for family bonding and the children will love it.

Comparison of photo quality between iPhone XS and Sony RX-100

I love the portrait mode of iPhone XS. With the bokeh capability, the photos look amazing. It makes all the people look like models on magazines’ covers (ok, it also has to depend on the models but you get the pictures). Another good thing about iPhone XS is that the photos are all in warm colours compare to photos taken by my Sony RX-100. You can see the comparisons below (photos below are in their original state and no filter added).

For more information, click the following link for the official website of Singapore Botanic Gardens.

Singapore Botanic Gardens official website

More interesting read about Singapore? Click the following.

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