Whampoa, Singapore

Coordinates: 1°19′29.38″N 103°51′24.96″E / 1.3248278°N 103.8569333°E / 1.3248278; 103.8569333

Whampoa is a housing estate located in the subzone of Balestier, which is a part of the planning area of Novena in Singapore. The area was named after Hoo Ah Kay, who was better known as "Whampoa" (due to his origin from China) during the early years of Singapore as a British settlement. His many contributions to the Straits Settlements, and that he could speak both Chinese and English well, thus made him an important bridge between the two communities. The respect for his contributions thus resulted in this area being named after him.

The Whampoa area has a significantly higher proportion of elderly and has garnered significant media attention with regards to active ageing programmes.

Facilities

As the area is mainly a housing estate, it consists of many blocks of the HDB flats, along with some recreational facilities such as a wet market and a hawker centre. There is also a community club, a mosque, a NKF kidney dialysis centre in it, and a bus terminal also known as the Saint Michael's Bus Terminal.

Politics

The Whampoa area is part of Jalan Besar GRC (formerly known as Jalan Besar Group Representation Constituency until 2011 and as Whampoa Single Member Constituency until 2015). The current Member of Parliament (MP) is Mr Heng Chee How.

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, March 23, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.