Orchard Road was once lined with nutmeg trees; today it runs for 2.2 km as a tree-shaded avenue of malls, department stores and hotels.
Nutmeg plantations spread over this valley in the 1830s, alongside orchards and pepper farms, but prices collapsed and by 1860 few estates survived. Retail arrived in 1958, when C.K. Tang opened his Chinese-roofed department store. Today ION Orchard, directly on top of Orchard MRT, is the flagship of the belt, with nearly 300 stores and ION Sky, an observation deck about 218 metres above ground.
Step off the road and older Singapore returns. Emerald Hill, a short walk up from Somerset, keeps Peranakan terraces with glazed tiles and half-height pintu pagar doors, and the Istana, the President’s residence, opens its gates on a few open-house days a year. Browse indoors at midday, walk the pavements in the evening, and come in November or December for the Christmas light-up.
