Xinhua News Agency, Singapore, October 4 th | From the kitchen to the alley, tourists from Singapore and China welcome the Golden Week together.
Xinhua News Agency reporter Shu Chang
In the kitchen of Singapore Coconut Club, the excitement brought by China National Day holiday is directly reflected by the change of chicken leg sales: during the Golden Week, chefs have to fry 30% more chicken legs than usual to meet customer demand.
In addition to chicken legs, coconut milk, rice and river fish larvae should be prepared more than usual to support coconut milk rice that locals and tourists love. Xie Fulong, managing partner of Coconut Club, is familiar with this rhythm. He said that every Spring Festival, around the 11th, the queue at the gate is always longer.
One of the most popular branches of this store is located in Kampong Grom. There are many traditional Nanyang shops and houses, and the aroma of Cantonese refreshments and Indian pancakes wafts across the street. This multicultural neighborhood is a good place to walk in the city. The pace of tourists is also reflected in the growth figures of Singapore Tourism Bureau: since the visa waiver between China and Singapore in February 2024, China has become Singapore’s largest source country. In the first eight months of this year, 2.3 million China tourists arrived in Singapore.
In order to seize the golden week business opportunities, Singapore is actively stocking up from small restaurants to big shopping malls to welcome guests. Takashimaya Department Store in Orchard Road, the core business district, sent more staff in advance to strengthen service and security, and the inventory of popular commodities was greatly improved. Jian Jiaguiwen, deputy general manager of Takashimaya, Singapore, said that during the Spring Festival and November, the queues at the checkout counter and the gift exchange desk will be longer, and the transaction volume and tax refund applications in shopping malls will also increase significantly.
Kan Jiagui said that Takashimaya has also prepared a small activity this year: visitors can get a reusable shopping bags by paying attention to the mall account in Little Red Book.
Many businesses have also felt the influence of social media. Xie Fulong remembers that at first, tourists from China told him, "Your store is on fire". Nowadays, Coconut Club is called one of the best places to taste coconut milk rice in Singapore by many netizens on China social platforms such as Little Red Book. He also accumulated more experience: this year, the store arranged more Chinese-speaking employees to go to work and prepared Chinese menus.
On the social platform of China, many bloggers shared their tips on ordering food and shopping in English in Singapore. In Singapore, more and more businesses are also improving bilingual services. Before the coming of the 11th National Day, Fair Price Group, Singapore’s largest retail group, organized a group of non-Chinese employees of Hilti convenience store to learn basic spoken Chinese, such as "Welcome to Singapore!"
Grab, an online platform providing taxi and take-away services, was also updated before the Golden Week: the Chinese interface was more friendly, and the menu translation and airport map were more complete. Grab spokesperson told reporters that during the eleventh period, the demand for car rental on Grab network will usually increase. "We look forward to visitors from China. Tourists are vital to local communities and businesses on the Grab platform. "
Payment services are also being upgraded. Recently, Parity Group has extended Alipay payment service to more than 500 supermarkets, convenience stores, drugstores and restaurants. At the end of September, Xiqiao convenience store also launched a small program on Alipay. Vipur Jolla, CEO of Parity Group, said that he hoped to "redefine the retail experience for China tourists".
Merchants are busy preparing, and tourists arrive as scheduled. On October 1st, in front of the water arc sprayed by Merlion, in the giant tree hole of Fukangning Park, and in front of the "Rainbow" composed of 927 windows of different colors in the Old Jubilee Street Police Station, people lined up to freeze this "Singapore Limit" in the lens.
However, crowds are no longer just concentrated in the mainstream attractions in the city center. A couple ran to the lighthouse at the westernmost end of the island for a group photo, with Malaysia across the sea in the background at sunset. In Baisha Park in the northeast corner, someone walked through the dense forest, overlooking the Pacific Ocean and enjoying a quiet coastline.
Soubrat Manya Bart, founder of Hua Kai Marketing Company, a Singaporean market research company, said that China tourists’ interest is "spilling over" from the iconic scenic spots that must be punched in, to bookstores, cafes, spice markets, cooking classes for girls, hiking in the forest, and even private restaurants hidden deep in alleys.
Singapore travel writer Ye Xiaozhong feels the same way. He often leads a group to explain historical stories and ecological landscapes along the way. After the visa exemption, more and more tourists from China who went to Singapore for free travel contacted him. Some people took a boat with him to see the "intertidal zone" in the southern island of Singapore-anemones, starfish and clown fish would appear on the beach at low tide. Some tourists wrote a lot of feelings in the WeChat group, saying that they didn’t expect to have such an original ecological experience in highly urbanized Singapore.
Some tourists no longer plan their trips carefully, but wander around at will and stop by when they are in the mood. Lu Yujie, from Zhejiang, wandered around Chinatown where early Chinese lived at noon and was attracted by the white signboard of a bookstore. Not letting go of every independent bookstore, she walked up to the second floor along the wall covered with handwritten book extracts, sat on the sofa by the wall for an hour, copied a paragraph and posted it on the wall, and shared the bookstore on the social platform. She said that the furnishings of this bookstore "really invite you to read a book for a while" "I hope the bookstore will still be there next time I go to Singapore!"
Bart said that China tourists found novel experiences in Xiaohongshu and Tik Tok, which made travel not just punch in landmarks, but walk more in alleys, which also led to small shop business and repeat customers; At the same time, content creators in China will share the small brands found in Singapore on domestic platforms, so that more people can know these small and good things.
In addition to finding surprises in the depths of alleys, this year, tourists can just catch up with a Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival in a foreign land. Many landmarks, such as Chinatown, lit lanterns in September. People raised their mobile phones and took photos with moon cakes, jade rabbits and osmanthus tree lanterns of the same size.
Many people may not know that behind these lanterns, there are a group of Chinese who arrived in Singapore earlier than tourists. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, Spring Festival and other festivals, many lanterns on the streets of Singapore are made by craftsmen in Zigong, Sichuan, which is known as the "City of Lights". Wan Qiang is one of them.
In early September, Wan Qiang had already arrived in Singapore. During the eleventh period, he was stationed in Binhai Bay Garden and had no time to visit the scenic spots. When tourists from all over the world are busy taking pictures as a souvenir, he and his colleagues are making every effort to ensure the safety of the lantern device and ensure that it continues to light steadily until late at night. (End)
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