Original subtitles

ADAM LIAW: Singapore...

..home to almost 5.5 million people...

..one of the world's most densely populated countries.

It has no natural assets...

..almost no arable land....

..no minerals or water resources...

..just half a century ago, a Third World nation.

Yet, it's a shining example of future cities.

Ingenious solutions fuel this modern marvel.

A land of architectural icons...

..industrial giants...

..and green wonders.

Join us as we find out

how innovative planning crowned Singapore

the jewel of South-East Asia.

There's a dynamism about Singapore as it powers into the 21st century.

Nothing is impossible.

This island nation is surviving against all the odds.

With not enough land to go around,

Singapore creates it.

It's reclaimed a massive 18% of its landmass

from the surrounding seabed and swampland.

Hills have been levelled, quarries dug, and sand dredged,

in the country's never-ceasing search for reclamation materials.

Landfill is transported to government dump zones like this

to be used for reclamation.

Trucks line up 24 hours a day

to unload the fill into barges

that deliver it to sites around the country.

This soil is all destined for the new mega-port

Singapore is building in the west.

It opens in 2027.

The new port, built entirely on reclaimed land,

will handle twice the cargo tonnage

that the Port of Singapore currently processes...

..future-proofing the expansion of the island's economy.

(FOGHORN BLARES)

With industrial land increasingly scarce in Singapore,

the government used reclamation in 2009

to join seven small islands together to form Jurong Island.

The ambitious project was designed

to boost Singapore's petrochemical industry.

It's now a mecca

for the heavy hitters of the petroleum industry...

..and home to the world's third-largest oil refinery.

Chevron, BP, and Shell are all here,

manufacturing a vast range of petroleum products.

And it's all done

without Singapore producing a single drop of its own crude oil.

130 metres beneath the surface,

lies an even more extraordinary industrial complex.

Singapore has built this massive underground oil-storage facility.

It's about the size of 600 Olympic swimming pools.

Jurong Island is now one of the world's biggest petrochemical hubs.

Singapore hasn't let its lack of land inhibit its economic growth.

If it hasn't got it, it makes it.

Here, at Marina Bay, right in the heart of the city,

nothing short of a miracle has occurred.

The Sands Corporation of Las Vegas applied for a casino licence,

but the government struck a tough bargain.

In return for the licence,

the developer had to build a completely new commercial hub...

..the integrated resort precinct - Marina Bay Sands.

It includes everything from a hotel and a mall to a convention centre.

There's even a museum.

All sitting on reclaimed land,

the architecture that resulted is breathtaking.

The three-towered, 55-storey Marina Bay Sands complex

is the centrepiece of the development.

It's a bold statement on how a building can connect

the city and its people in creative and dynamic ways.

Besides lacking land,

Singapore also lacks natural sources of water.

A thirsty population demands 1.5 billion litres of it a day.

Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention,

and Singapore has been remarkably creative to meet the demand.

One way it has been done is by importing water from Malaysia.

These large white pipes on the side of the Causeway,

linking the two countries, are a liquid lifeline for Singapore.

For more than 80 years,

these pipes have supplied 60% of the country's water needs.

Singapore has also built a network of 17 reservoirs around the country

to capture rainwater.

MacRitchie is the grand old dame of the system,

opening in 1868.

It's not just a catchment zone,

it's also a place of beauty.

The government preserved

12 hectares of native forest bordering the reservoir

and banned any further deforestation.

The reservoirs, though, don't just store rainwater

that falls in their location...

..they are also the collection points for rainwater flowing in

from a 7,000km drainage system that crisscrosses the country.

Massive stormwater drains connect to smaller ones,

which connect to roadside canals.

The extensive drainage system is also an ingenious solution

to another water problem that hampered Singapore for decades...

(THUNDER RUMBLES)

..tropical storms.

Singapore gets four times more rain per year than falls in London.

Until the 1980s, widespread flooding was a regular event,

especially in low-lying areas like the city centre.

Now stormwater is captured by the large drainage system

and fed into reservoirs, relieving problem areas from flooding.

Today, the country's canals and reservoirs

are not only sources of drinking water,

they are also are places of recreation,

becoming magnets for nature lovers and runners, with hiking trails.

Kayaking and canoeing are also popular.

Perhaps the greatest example of Singapore's water strategy

is the damming of the Marina Channel to create the Marina Barrage...

..the country's most urbanised reservoir.

A high-tech dam was built across the Marina Channel

to separate the bay from the Singapore Strait.

A feat of engineering

that cost the equivalent of 226 million Australian dollars,

it separates the waters of the bay from those of the sea.

It opened in 2008,

since then, inflows from the catchment area have turned

what was a saltwater bay into a freshwater reservoir.

The Marina Barrage complex is also eco-friendly.

Its landscaped green roof cleverly provides natural insulation

for the complex.

And solar panels generate

76,000 kilowatts of electricity a year to power the site.

Marina Bay is also the stage

for Singapore's annual Dragon Boat festival.

Contestants race 500 metres to the finish line

to the beat of drums in a fiesta of sweat and endeavour.

The Marina Reservoir, along with other reservoirs in Singapore,

was originally built for practical purposes.

Now it's also a recreational paradise.

It's all part of the smart, multi-purpose approach

of the country's planners to the capture and use of water.

Ironically, because of the lack of it.

However, Singapore, the man-made miracle,

wasn't always so.

Two centuries ago, it was a small fishing village

surrounded by swampland.

How it got to where it is today

is an extraordinary tale of opportunity and vision.

Singapore derives its name from a Sumatran prince who,

after landing on the island in 1299,

thought he saw a lion while out hunting and named it 'Singa Pura' -

'Lion City' in Malay.

It's a country many doubted would survive independence,

owing to its small size and lack of natural resources.

So it made every advantage it had count.

Singapore is strategically located

off the southernmost tip of the Malay Peninsula,

enabling it to establish itself as the main gateway to Asia

for American and European shipping.

(FOGHORNS BLARE)

Today, it is one of the world's busiest ports.

Over 30 million containers pass through every year.

If they were all lined up,

they would circle the globe five times.

It wasn't always this way.

Almost 200 years ago,

Singapore was a small fishing village located here at Boat Quay.

At the turn of the 18th century, it was a mangrove swamp

and home to the Orang Laut people.

They were a nomadic fishing people who lived in sampans on the river.

Today, Boat Quay is a thriving restaurant and bar precinct.

The British Governor of Java, Sir Stamford Raffles, arrived in 1819

and immediately saw the potential to develop Singapore as a trading port.

(ISLAMIC CALL TO PRAYER RESOUNDS)

Raffles quickly negotiated with the local sultan

to hand over control of the island to the East India Company.

The sultan was Hussein Shah of Johore,

and the Sultan Mosque here in Kampong Glam is named after him.

Although he had no previous contact with the British,

Hussein Shah had certainly heard of the might of the Royal Navy.

In return for Singapore,

Raffles had to recognise, on behalf of the British Crown,

the sultan as the rightful ruler of nearby Johore in Malaya.

Hussein Shah had lost the throne to his younger brother

because he was away in Pahang getting married

when their father died.

Under the deal,

the British would pay him and the governor of Singapore

an annual stipend.

The Sultan got 5,000 Spanish dollars a year,

a huge sum equivalent to hundreds of thousands of dollars today.

He also demanded free land to build the Sultan Mosque,

as well as a slice of the customs duties from the port.

As trade boomed, close to 11,000 immigrants flooded in

from the Middle East, India, Malaya, and China.

The rich cultural diversity and character

of modern Singapore were emerging.

Raffles drew up an ambitious town plan,

allotting specific residential areas for each race.

They remain much the same today.

By the 1890s,

these banks of the Singapore River had become the centre of commerce.

Warehouses, boat-building yards, rice and animal farms,

all jostled for space.

Sawmills and shop-houses added to the frantic energy.

More than 100,000 people relied on the Singapore River

for employment and sustenance.

Ships would arrive from China, Thailand, and Vietnam

with labourers and cargoes of dried-goods and medicines.

They left laden with produce,

tin and gold from the Malay Archipelago,

opium from India, and English cotton goods and arms.

An influx of Chinese immigrants during the 1800s

led to the construction of the Thian Hock Keng Temple

in the now historic Chinatown district.

Remarkably, Singapore's oldest Hokkien temple

was built without using a single nail!

The temple's resident deity is Mazu, protector of seafarers,

making it a go-to destination over the years for visiting sailors.

Proclaimed a national monument in 1973,

the shrine was almost lost in the 1990s.

Termites had badly infested the wooden structure,

threatening its very survival.

The government,

determined to preserve heritage buildings in the area,

encouraged a major restoration program to save the temple.

Up to 70 skilled Fujian craftsmen,

including wood carvers, artisans, and stonemasons,

were recruited from China.

It took them two and a half years

to give the temple a clean bill of health.

Singapore's legacy can also be seen

in some of the city's most prominent landmarks,

such as the Raffles Hotel.

Opened in 1887,

the neo-Renaissance building has hosted

many of the world's most famous people,

from the Queen, to Charlie Chaplin, to Michael Jackson.

Its Long Bar was popular with writers,

from the young Joseph Conrad in the early days,

to Ernest Hemingway in the 1930s.

The hotel has also entertained some unusual guests -

in 1902, a wild tiger came to tea.

It found its way into the billiard room,

where it crouched menacingly under a table,

scattering guests in all directions.

A member of Singapore's Rifle Team was hastily summoned.

The marksman came still dressed in his pyjamas.

After shooting the tiger,

he probably retired to the dining room for breakfast.

The neo-classical Fullerton Hotel on Marina Bay

is another historic building that has borne witness

to the development of Singapore.

The Fullerton opened in 1928 as the General Post Office,

and also housed the exclusive colonial retreat,

the Singapore Club.

During the Second World War,

the building was converted into a military hospital.

Doctors worked around the clock

to treat wounded British soldiers

in operating theatres set up in its rooms.

Then, after the British surrender in February 1942,

the Fullerton became the Japanese headquarters

for the rest of the war.

In 1997, a private buyer bought the Fullerton

and spent hundreds of millions of dollars refurbishing it

and restoring its heritage architecture.

The Fullerton is now a living museum,

and a symbol of the Singapore government's plan

to protect its cultural heritage.

In 2015, it was gazetted as a national monument.

The city skyline behind the Fullerton is a long way from what it was

on August the ninth, 1965,

when Singapore went its own way after a short-lived union with Malaysia.

At that time, it was a developing country

with overwhelming population pressures.

More than 50 years on, Singapore is thriving.

Under the helm of its first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew,

who stayed in office for 31 years,

Singapore became an Asian powerhouse.

The Singapore River, where it all began,

mirrors the dramatic changes the city-state has seen.

For decades, it was a crowded and heavily polluted waterway.

After a major government-led makeover,

it has become a magnet for visitors.

As day turns to night here in Clarke Quay,

hardworking Singaporeans and tourists come to relax.

A vibrant entertainment precinct

awash with restaurants, bars, and nightclubs,

it shows how innovative urban planning

can overcome even the greatest of odds.

Singapore, now a dynamic modern metropolis,

is facing new challenges.

Housing a rapidly growing population while staying creative

and keeping an eye on the future is no easy task.

(FOGHORN BLARES)

Without the rich natural resources that many nations are blessed with,

Singapore had to get creative.

Reclamation engineers are hard at work

expanding Singapore's landmass.

An extensive freshwater collection system supplies its people.

The transformation of Singapore since independence has been amazing.

Innovative thinking has created a city of the future.

The sprawling Suntec City complex opened in 1997.

It's a Feng Shui masterpiece,

designed to bring its Hong Kong investors fortune and success.

When viewed from above,

the five towers and the convention centre

look like a man's left hand.

And in the centre,

the Fountain of Wealth looks like a golden ring

in the palm of the hand.

As the fountain is made of bronze, it is believed

that the balance of metal and water will pave the way for success.

Hollywood has also come to Singapore.

The Sandcrawler Building is straight out of Star Wars.

It is the Asian headquarters of Disney's Lucasfilm division.

Inspired by the Star Wars desert vehicle, the Sandcrawler...

..the state-of-the-art film and animation facility

features a 100-seat theatre,

eight floors of offices,

and lush greenery.

It's a modern icon,

and a tourist destination unto itself.

Historically, much of what is now the central business district

was run-down, densely packed low-rise housing.

The transformation is startling.

Some of the city's most dramatic residential buildings

are located downtown.

The twin towers of the Sail building are sculpted to look like sails

with a huge canyon dividing them.

It's one of the most expensive residential complexes in Singapore.

A one-bedroom studio apartment here costs over $1 million.

Four-bedroom penthouses sell for an extraordinary 21 million.

Minutes from the central business district,

the mesmerising Reflections at Keppel Bay.

Its designer - the celebrated Polish-American Daniel Libeskind,

a master architect

who oversaw the reconstruction of the World Trade Center

in Lower Manhattan after 9/11.

Apartments in Reflections at Keppel Bay

command breathtaking views of the waterfront and the city.

The double-curvature forms of its six towers defy gravity

as they stretch up to the sky.

A 21st-century icon.

Towards the west of Singapore lies The Interlace,

designed by star architect Ole Scheeren.

31 six-storey-high apartment blocks

are designed in a startling hexagonal pattern,

a radical rethink of old-school concrete housing structures...

..and a lush vision of communal living

and urban habitats in the future.

The ground-level vegetation is echoed in extensive roof gardens,

landscaped sky terraces, and other green areas.

An ambitious mega-structure that defied its critics

and won Building of the Year at the 2015 World Architectural Festival.

Amongst Singapore's greatest architectural achievements

is how it has revolutionised public-housing design.

At 50 storeys,

The Pinnacle is the world's tallest public-housing project.

Its seven towers are linked by steel bridges,

creating a 500-metre-long sky garden on the 50th floor,

as well as an 800-metre jogging track on the 26th floor.

Everything engineered to enhance the experience

of living at such a height.

Here at Punggol, a former swamp,

public housing blocks stretch as far as the eye can see.

HDB flats, named after the Housing and Development Board,

are a uniquely Singaporean solution

to housing millions of citizens on a small island.

It is a far cry from 1959,

when over half a million Singaporeans were living in squalid conditions

in the city centre or squatting in the suburbs.

Nationwide, over 1 million HDB units have now been built.

Even cemeteries are moved or modified to make way for the living.

Here at the Choa Chu Kang cemetery,

35,000 graves will be reassigned to accommodate new burial spaces.

But there's a catch -

you can only lease a burial plot for 15 years!

With a staggering 82% of Singaporeans now living in HDB flats,

they have evolved into mega-villages,

with all the shops, conveniences, and facilities

a family would ever need.

This scale of government residential planning and construction

is unmatched anywhere else in the world.

And it has changed the way Singaporeans live.

Despite its success in revolutionising urban living,

Singapore envisions a future

that unites the concrete jungle with the real one.

The country is on a unique mission -

to transform itself into a 'City in a Garden'.

Singapore is one of the fastest-growing cities in the world.

Unlike many other capitals,

it is actively melding urban spaces with lush greenery.

Citizens are also encouraged

to cherish previously forgotten paradises.

Not many foreigners realise that Singapore's national territory

includes more than 60 smaller islands.

Compared to the hustle and bustle of the city,

the islands are like another world.

Some have been shaped and expanded by the hand of man,

others are natural sanctuaries

for an astonishing collection of animal and marine life.

Sisters' Islands, 2.5km south of the city,

are bordered by 32% of the hard coral species found in the world.

The reefs play host to over 200 species of sponge,

and an incredible line-up of marine life.

Legend has it that Big Sister and Little Sister Islands were formed

after a young girl was kidnapped by pirates.

Her weeping sister dived into the sea to swim after the pirates' ship,

but, sadly, drowned.

Her distraught sister freed herself from her captors

and also jumped into the sea, perishing in her turn.

A fierce storm broke,

and when it subsided,

two new islands were found at the spot where the sisters had died.

In 2014,

Singapore's first marine park was declared around the islands,

and the marine life in it is thriving.

The park waters are home

to three of the five Neptune's Cup giant sponges

known to remain in the entire world.

Tribes of crab-eating macaque monkeys now roam the beaches.

All part of a dedicated government effort

to ensure the natural heritage is preserved for future generations.

Other islands, like Kusu, have been expanded through land reclamation.

Originally just two rocky outcrops on a reef,

Kusu has been transformed through landfill

into a landmass seven times its original size.

It got its name from a folktale about a giant tortoise

that turned itself into an island to save two shipwrecked sailors,

one Chinese and the other Malay.

The sailors were so grateful that they each built a shrine,

one Taoist and the other Muslim, to the tortoise's memory.

Legend eventually became reality,

and the island is now home to a Chinese temple

and three Muslim shrines,

attracting thousands of pilgrims every year.

Not all of Singapore's surprising archipelagos

are sanctuaries for faith and wildlife.

At the tip of southern Singapore is Sentosa Island,

home to some of the country's prime real estate

and the multi-billion-dollar playground -

Resorts World Sentosa.

It contains a casino, hotels, retail outlets, and an oceanarium.

Right next door is South-East Asia's

first and only Universal Studios theme park.

An extensive bus, car, and tram network

transports more than 19 million tourists

to Sentosa every year.

And for those with no fear of heights,

a cable car ride back to the city promises spectacular views.

Away from the islands, in the north-west of Singapore,

lies the country's first wetlands reserve -

Sungei Buloh.

Originally slated for agricultural development,

these mangroves are now preserved.

They provide a unique habitat for a vast range of wildlife species.

The 130-hectare park

is a resting-point for birds migrating from Siberia to Australia

for the northern winter.

With herons, kingfishers, and even fish eagles

calling Sungei Buloh home,

it is a mecca for birdwatchers from all over the world.

The jewel in the crown of Singapore's prized green spaces

is undoubtedly the Botanic Gardens -

82 hectares right on the fringe of the main shopping belt.

Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2015,

the Botanic Gardens are over 150 years old.

Their rainforest long predates the surrounding city.

A reminder of its colonial beginnings is Burkill Hall,

an Anglo-Malayan plantation house built in 1868 and now restored.

It is named after the father and son Isaac and Humphrey Burkill,

who both served as directors of the Botanic Gardens.

Eldred Corner, the assistant director of the gardens before the war,

devised a novel means of gathering specimens of flora.

He trained coconut-collecting macaques

to collect plant specimens for him.

All went well until war approached,

and he was about to join the Singapore Volunteer Force.

Then he was attacked by one of his own monkeys,

and he failed the army medical!

The perils of research.

One of the main attractions in the gardens

is the National Orchid Garden.

A treasure-trove of more than 1,000 different species,

it has helped make Singapore a world pioneer

in the cultivation of orchid hybrids.

But to be a true 'City in a Garden'

will require more than conserving islands and public parks.

Singapore must build green lungs into the DNA of the city itself.

The Parkroyal Hotel downtown

is a modern-day Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Sky-gardens fill its terraces,

and green spaces pepper the structure.

Another eye-catching innovation is this remarkable animal bridge,

clothed in native plants and covering a busy expressway.

The Eco-Link is designed to encourage wildlife

to take a walk on the wild side while crossing the road in safety.

It also extends their natural habitat.

And here, in central Singapore,

is the latest and, perhaps, boldest environmental initiative...

..the 101-hectare nature park, Gardens by the Bay.

All built on reclaimed land,

this spectacular green space opened in 2012.

A botanic garden of the future,

its landscape is dominated by the Super Grove...

..which features these amazing Supertree structures.

These 18 concrete replicas of rainforest giants

are dressed in a vibrant array of vines, ferns, and plants

that grow up and around them.

Reaching up to 50 metres in height,

the Supertrees use technology

to mimic the ecological functions of trees.

Photovoltaic cells in the Supertrees harness solar energy to light up,

just as real trees photosynthesise light and convert it to energy.

The futuristic Supertrees are rivalled only

by these two glass-covered conservatories.

In a country that lies one degree north of the equator,

the conservatories had to install

advanced shading and climate control technologies

to keep plants from different regions around the world alive.

At night, Gardens by the Bay comes alive

in a spectacular show of lights and music.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival,

thousands of visitors enjoy not only the light shows,

but displays depicting Chinese legends.

Gardens by the Bay aptly symbolises

just how far Singapore has come in little over half a century.

Through hard work and innovation,

Singapore has transformed itself from a Third World country

into a dynamic First World nation

at the centre of a rapidly growing Asian economy.

The city has grown without destroying its historic,

cultural and natural heritage.

Singapore, a city soaring effortlessly into the future.

Captions by Red Bee Media (c) SBS Australia 2019