Chinatown

Chinatown changes with the hour. By day it's temples and hawker centres, the big open-sided halls of small stalls where everyone shares tables. By night the shophouses, the old terraces with a shop on the ground floor, fill up with small bars, and a handful of serious kitchens hide in Blair Plain. Most people meet it on Pagoda Street, a run of souvenir shops where the one ticketed reason to linger is the Chinatown Heritage Centre. Walk two blocks to Telok Ayer, Ann Siang or Club Street and the neighbourhood you came for opens up.

Start on South Bridge Road in the morning. Sri Mariamman at 244 is Singapore's oldest Hindu temple, and its gopuram, the stacked tower above the gate, deserves a long look before you go in. It closes from noon to 6pm, so come early. Jamae Mosque (Masjid Jamae Chulia) stands opposite at 218, a National Monument and a Chulia wakaf, or community endowment, and it's free to visit. At 288, the Tang-style Buddha Tooth Relic Temple is free from 7am to 5pm, including the Buddhas of the World Museum and a rooftop garden with a giant prayer wheel.

Walk over to Telok Ayer Street for Thian Hock Keng at 158, the Hokkien temple to Mazu, a National Monument assembled without nails and typically open daily from 7.30am to 5pm. Then eat at Maxwell Food Centre before the Tian Tian queue peaks, or go deeper to Chinatown Complex on Smith Street, where the neighbourhood goes for lunch. Next door at 45 Maxwell Road, Singapore City Gallery in the URA Centre holds the city's free planning model, open 9am to 5pm Monday to Saturday except public holidays, and groups over 20 need to book. On Neil Road, Tea Chapter has been pouring since 1989.

In the afternoon, SINGAPO人 on Level 2 of the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre, 1 Straits Boulevard, is free and walk-in, and Bit Bit Forest, the inflatable-rabbit garden on its roof, runs until 13 December. Both sit nearer Downtown MRT (DT17) or Raffles Place than Chinatown. Around 6pm, climb Pearl's Hill City Park, an 8.5-hectare reservoir hill above the shophouses with tembusu trees, a lotus pond and the CBD through the branches. It's open 24 hours but has no wheelchair access, and it's about ten minutes uphill from Outram Park, also your station for Blair Plain and the Pinnacle@Duxton skybridge. After dark the rooftops on Ann Siang and Club Street take over, and this is where our cocktail crawl and our chef's table in a Blair Plain shophouse run. Thong Chai Medical Institution, at 50 Chin Swee Road, is a charity clinic that offers free traditional Chinese medicine consultations to anyone who registers in person, so bring ID such as a passport.

Where to eat

• Tian Tian, Maxwell Food Centre, 1 Kadayanallur Street #01-10/11: chicken rice, typically 10am to 8pm and closed Mondays. Queue before 11am or after 2pm
• Chinatown Complex, 335 Smith Street: the hawker centre the neighbourhood uses for its own lunch, and the better bet when Maxwell's queues build
• Amoy Street Food Centre, 7 Maxwell Road: two floors of CBD lunch stalls. Each keeps its own hours and many cook mainly for weekday office lunches
• Tea Chapter, 9 Neil Road: the tea house pours 11am to 9pm Sunday to Thursday and until 10.30pm Friday and Saturday. The shop opens at 10.30am
• Lau Pa Sat, Boon Tat Street: the evening detour for satay, after 7pm