A half-fish and a half-lion will let your imagination run wild. Probably it is nothing new when you have already seen that famous statue printed on almost every world souvenir. And it is certainly nothing new, if you have been to Singapore as a tourist.
Singapore attracts many visitors ranging from students and professionals to tourists. A tourist, however, shall not miss this half-fish and half-lion. It is nothing but Merlion Park. Take lodging in a Serviced Apartment in Singapore like Citadines Mount Sophia Singapore, and it is easy to locate this place.
Merlion Park is well known for what it houses: the Merlion statue. It is the country’s national icon featuring a head of a lion and a body of a fish. Any native will be willing to share the story behind it with you. The story simply tells you the modest starting point of Singapore.
Singapore, despite its high-paced economic development, was a plain fishing village. People knew it as Temasek, which is ancient Javanese for sea town. The statue’s head represents Singapore real name, ‘Singapura’ which is ‘lion city’ in Malay. The statue stands alone majestic and alive with water gushing out of its mouth. The statue is said to weigh about 70 tonnes and 8.6 metres tall.
Merlion statue is synonymous with Singapore. If you are a tourist visiting this country, you shall never miss visiting this place. It was a local craftsman by the name of Lim Nang Seng who built this statue. The statue was first open to the public in 1972.
The statue, however, had to be relocated as Esplanade Bridge reached the completion of its bridge in 1997. The statue could not be viewed from the distance since then. The statue was moved 120 metres away. When you stand close to the statue, you can view Marina Bay without any difficulty.
The park glistens in radiance with so many attractions in the surrounding: Esplanade, SG skyscrapers, MBS, Stadium, LV house, MAkansutra food hawker, Gardens by the Bay and Singapore Flyer.
Uditha Dharmawardhane is a travel writer who writes under the pen name Roland Lefevre. He specializes in creating features on leisure as well as business travel destinations across the globe.