The Chinatown in Singapore that most tourists know about is the one that you will see in the nice postcards, and in all the tourist brochures. There is however another side of Singapore’s Chinatown, a side that has a more distinct local charm that most tourists failed to visit. It is basically located on the opposite side of Eu Tong Seng Street, in an area commonly known as the People’s Park Complex.

Finding the place is quite easy, just look for the giant lime green People’s Park Complex building which serves as a shopping mall and an apartment building. The mall itself is quite old, and you will not find any commonly branded stores there. You will instead find a wide spectrum of travel agencies, electronic stores, jewelry shops, wholesale priced perfume stores, Chinese herb shops, money changers, tattoo parlors, and oddly enough numerous foot massage parlors. Because of this strange mix of different genres of stores, it makes it quite a unique place to visit.

One of the main highlights of visiting this place is that you can find many good and reliable travel agencies throughout People’s Park Complex. They offer a lot of great deals for travel packages, accommodations, and transport options around the region and beyond, so it is worth checking them out. One word of caution is that you need to make sure you only visit the larger and more popular travel agencies, as they are more dependable. You can easily tell which ones are the popular agencies by simply looking at the ones with the most customers.

As you make your way outside of the mall, right near the entrance of the Chinatown MRT exit, you will find numerous food stalls selling snacks and street food. Around the corner of the mall outside, you will also find one of the best money changers in town offering the best rates with no prior negotiations needed. The money changer is called Crante Money Changer and is located right beside the durian pancake shop. You can easily recognize it by the long queue of people waiting to get their money changed!

So this is pretty much it for the tour of People’s Park Complex. Don’t hope to find a modern mall here, but it is definitely worth to check out if you are looking for some good travel deals, in getting your money exchanged, and in getting your feet massaged all in one go!