Jungle trails in Singapore

Are there still any  jungle paths/trails left in Singapore?

Most Singaporeans think that they live in an environment called the Concrete Jungle. This is because when they step out of their houses, they will see buildings and more buildings. There may be plenty of trees planted along roads and highways. These man-make landscapes look rather artificial and unattractive. What happen to our jungle trails and natural habitats?

Jungle paths

However, if you are tired of city life and dare to explore, there are still some jungle paths, nature reserves and remote places in Singapore where people can spend time hiking and venturing into the nature. Dairy Farm Nature Park is one of those nature reserves that my family and I like to frequent on Saturdays. It is near where I live and there is free car park at the entrance of the park. Inside the park, there are a few trails you can take and there are also some trails specifically designated for cyclists riding on their mountain bikes. While you are on the trails, you will be treated with a different experience. You will see jungle paths, wild trees and plants; and of course mosquitoes and insects. To ward off snakes and other unknown creatures, you have better bring along with you your walking sticks. Beware that the jungle trails are muddy and uneven, fallen leaves and tree branches everywhere. It can be kind of scary when on one is around and you are hiking alone.

Dairy Farm got its name in the 1930s, when Fred Heron, then Managing Director of Cold Storage, established the world’s first tropical dairy farm on a 60-acre patch of jungle land. The dairy farm ceased operations in the 1970s, and the area was then used for vegetable farming and subsequently for other horticulture-related operations. In 2002, the Dairy Farm Quarry area was identified as a nature park under the Urban Redevelopment Authority's Parks & Waterbodies Plan.

The Dairy Farm area was among the forests cleared in the 1800s to make way for settlements and gambier and pepper plantations. Its surrounding secondary forest remained rich in flora and fauna. When renowned English naturalist  Alfred Russel Wallace  stopped over in Singapore in 1854, during his journeys to the Malay Archipelago, he collected about 700 species of beetles in the vicinity of the Dairy Farm site.

The development of Dairy Farm Nature Park is part of a  government's strategy to conserve the area’s biodiversity. Today, the Dairy Farm Nature Park, together with Hindhede Nature Park, serves as a ‘buffer zone’ for Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (BTNR). Both parks help to divert visitorship from the Nature Reserve to minimise human impact to the reserve area, while providing interesting recreational and educational options for all visitors.

Inside the nature reserves, you can find an unused Quarry which has been transformed into a scenic and tranquil wetland with a viewing platform for visitors to appreciate the freshwater flora and fauna. The Quarry is already home to many rare dragonflies and birds, including the Little Grebe, a critically endangered bird that was previously found only in Lorong Halus.

Wallace Education Centre

Further into the nature reserves there is the Wallace Education Centre, another feature of the park, which was restored from a former cowshed. The WEC now houses an interpretative centre where visitors can learn about the changing landscapes of Dairy Farm and Bukit Timah Nature Reserve through various exhibits. It also houses the Wallace Environmental Learning Lab (WELL), a holistic programme for students to discover Singapore’s natural heritage through interesting hands-on activities. WELL was established by NParks and Raffles Girls’ Secondary School and sponsored by Glaxo SmithKline. 

To make the Dairy Farm Nature Park even more ‘green’, many of its features were designed to be environmentally friendly. Recycled materials were used for buildings and benches, while the hiking trails were made from bitumen milled off from roads and expressways.

Indeed, the WEC is designed to maximise the use of natural sunlight, and solar panels have also been installed on its roof to generate electricity to run the centre. This is the first park to have been built with the intent of achieving BCA/NParks Green Mark.

Minister Mah touring the Park

If you are a  nature lover why don't you check out this nature park right in the heart of this green and shimmering island. Bring your family members along and I am sure you will find this experience unforgettable.

Magnificent antique furniture

Chinese furniture items such as chairs, tables, beds and cupboards from the Ming & Qing dynasties are known to be exquisitely designed and magnificently made by very talented craftsmen. They were made from a variety of hard woods such as the Huang Huali, black Zitan and red wood. Looking at these elegant furniture items, you've got to admire the skills and talents of their makers.

The cost of these hard woods has increased tremendously over the years due to shortage of trees and hence raw materials. These trees need a few hundred years to grow to the size required for furniture making. Scarcity in raw materials also drives the price of hard wood furniture.

The hard wood was elegantly made into chairs of classic designs. The Ming dynasty chairs are simple in design yet the outward appearance is truly magnificent. The line contour of the Ming chair is unique and can be easily recognised. The Qing dynasty chairs, on the other hand, are more complex with delicate carvings and decorations.

Ming dynasty chair



Prime minister's chair

A special type of chair was popular among the emperors of the Qing dynasty. They are called the deer-horns chairs as they were made from the horns of  deers. Why would people want to make chairs from horns? This had to do with their customs. Manchurian people were hunters. So when they ruled China during the 18th century, the emperors would take his children and generals to a hunting field (to remind them of their humble beginning) where everyone tried to outshine the other by show off his hunting skills. It is said that when Qianlong emperor hunted a few deers, he had an idea. As the horns looked strong and elegant, why not made a chair out of these horns. Immediately he ordered his craftsmen to make a chair using the horns of the deers he had killed. The next time he went hunting, he would bring along this chair for resting.



Chair made from deers' horns

Since the 90s, there is a craze for antique furniture from the Ming and Qing dynasties. Some of the Ming and Qing chairs are fiercely bided during auctions. Auction prices of tens of millions are not uncommon. Collectors don't mind paying high prices for these items due to the rich history and culture behind them.

Some businessmen caught on this idea. With the ever diminishing supply of good hard wood, they went to the island of Hainan to look for new source of raw materials. As there were no more big trees, they would go to the farmers' houses and check if the beams and columns of these wooden houses were made of the hardwood (usually Huang Huali) they wanted. If they found what they wanted, they would pay the farmers and had the beams and columns removed and shipped back to their factory. From these beams and columns, they would make into classic Ming and Qing furniture. Someof these exquisite made furniture items can fetch millions of RMB in furniture trade. Over time, the price of this wood (from harmers' houses) increased from a few RMB a kg to several thousands RMB per kg.

If you go to Hainan these days, you are sure to bump into street vendors selling all types of wood products form raw wooden blocks to carved items. It seems that in the world of collecting, anything and everything is valuable as long as there is a market.




Beautiful porcelains

Do you know why antique Chinese porcelains are so valuable? These porcelains developed over the centuries from simple white graze to the magnificent multi-colour glaze. Why there are very few porcelains with pure yellow glaze? What is the difference between potteries and porcelains?

We all know that porcelains are delicate art pieces that break easily if not handled properly. Antique porcelains are valuable and even priceless, especially for those Yuan blue and white pieces. Porcelains from the Ming dynasty (such as the chicken cup) can fetch millions of dollars in auction. The Qing porcelains (Kang Xi, Yong Zheng and Qian Long era) are also highly soughed after by collectors. These art pieces are so valuable because they were made for emperors. There could not be any mistakes or defects in the porcelains or else heads would start rolling. The early Qing emperors even assigned a high ranking officer to Jingdezheng to supervise the production of porcelains for imperial use. Sometimes, the emperors would order the officer to imitate some of the porcelains that were made during the Song dynasty due to the impeccable quality and unique colour of the glaze.

The different colours in the glaze of the porcelains depends on the elements/chemical used and the temperature in the kiln. Some of the common glaze colour includes white, red, blue and green with many combinations of intensity and shades.



Emperor's bowl

All the emperors in history were very particular on the use of colour. Emperor in Chinese meant Huang Di (Yellow King). So yellow symbolised divine power and kingship. As a result, the emperors would forbid other people to use this colour. If anybody put on a yellow robe, he was regarded as someone wanting to seize the throne. All his family members (close and distant relatives) would be put to death. The yellow colour was strictly reserved for emperors' use. This happened to the founding emperor of the Song dynasty. He was just a general at that time. As other generals were not please with the emperor at that time (from the Tang dynasty), they put a yellow robe on this general to declare him the new emperor. Immediately they started the revolution and overthrew the last emperor of the Tang dynasty. This was known in history as the "Yellow robe uprising" that led to the beginning of the Song dynasty.

Even in porcelains, the emperors would instruct his officer to produce pure yellow porcelains for his own use. The only persons allowed to use the yellow porcelains were the empress and the emperor's mother. This explained why there were so few pure yellow porcelains in the market. Then there is another type of imperial ware where the outside is yellow while the inside of the ware is white. Another type where the outside is yellow with paintings of green dragons. The one with the white glaze inside was for the use of the emperor's concubines while the one with painting of green dragons is for other royalties such as the prince and princess.

 

Concubine's bowl

Every year, the emperor would order the officer in-charge to make a certain quantity of bowls, plates and other wares for his house hold. The number of utensils made also depend on seniority. By looking at the colour of the utensils and their quantity, one would know the seniority in the imperial house hold.
It is very interesting if you research into the world of porcelains, you are sure to discover a lot of new things.

Yuan Blue & White II

Blue and white  porcelains from the Yuan dynasty are very rare and valuable. It was reported there are only 30 odd pieces in the whole world. Most of these porcelains are kept in museums. With the remaining few in private hands, one can expect these porcelains will be hot items in auction houses. As a result, there will be a lot of high quality fakes in the market to fool the innocent collectors. Do not be tempted if someone shows you a blue and white vase from the Yuan dynasty. Basically, it is  very difficult to find one genuine one around.

I mentioned earlier that a blue and white jar from the Yuan dynasty fetched 230 million RMB. Here is another story on the discovery of another rare blue and white vase and the owner did not even know that the vase was so valuable.


230 million RMB for this Yuan dynasty jar

This happened to an old English man who was living alone with a dog. There was a vase sitting somewhere in the house. Every time the dog would like to go near the vase and wage his tail. One day, some body from the auction house visited the old man. He spotted this blue and white vase and immediately knew that it was good stuff.  He told the old man that the vase was an antique and could be sold in auction. The old man agreed to put it up for sale in a local auction house (in the remote town where he stayed). Guess what, the vase was successfully auctioned for a high  price of 50 million RMB (3.445 million pounds). This was in 2005 in a remote town in England. By today's standard, if the vase is to be auctioned in major auction house (like Sotheby), who knows how much the vase would fetch? The old man was stunned to realise that the most valuable thing in his possession was actually this vase. He looked at the dog (still waging its tails) with thankful eyes. He was thankful that all these years of waging its tails in the vicinity of the vase, the dog did not break it.

British people are known to keep records of things and events. So when the old man checked the records, he realised that the vase was bought (probably by his father) in 1900 at a price of 10 pounds. So 105 years later, the value of the vase rocketed to 3.4 million pounds, an increase of 10 times a day.

Blue and white vase from Yuan dynasty.



Chenghua Chicken cups

This tiny Ming dynasty cup known as the 'chicken cup' will be auctioned today in Hong Kong and is expected to fetch as much as US$38.5 million. The cup small enough to be held in the palm, was made between 1465 and 1487 and is named for the chickens painted on the side of the cup.



The chicken cup

Why such a small cup can be so valuable? Well, there are only 19 such cups known to exist and only 4 are in private hands, the rest are in museums.

Part of the Meiyintang collection owned by Switzerland's Zuellig family, this chicken cup is also the last chicken cup to be auctioned. In 1999, a similar cup was auctioned for US$3.7 million, a record for a Chinese porcelain.

The wares from this 15th century period are known as Chenghua porcelain, name after the Ming dynasty emperor who ruled China at that time. This period was known to produce porcelain that peaked in material refinement. The imperial kilns of that period exercised strict quality control and the art work on the porcelains was simple yet lovely.

The painting on the cup depicts a rooster and a hen taking care of a young chick, a parable for Confucian virtues that extend to an emperor who looked after his subjects. The simplicity is what makes this cup so desirable and collectors all over the world will sure bid intensely for it.

Only 4 cups are in private collection

 The Chenghua porcelains were also widely copied during the Qing dynasty as Qing emperors were fascinated by the exceptional quality and art work of such wares produced during the mid-Ming dynasty.

Another Chenghua cup showing bunches of grapes

(News on TV tonight reported that the chicken cup was successfully auctioned for over S$50 million, the new owner is a collector from Shanghai).

Blue and White I

Antique blue and white vases have been very well soughed after by collectors all over the world. But do you know the most expensive piece of blue and white vase (or rather jar) that had been auctioned before? Take a look at the picture below.

Yuan blue and white jar

This is a jar made during the Yuan dynasty. It is widely known as 'the master returns' in the world of antiques. It fetched 230 millions RMB during an auction, that was a record for a Chinese antique porcelain. All the while, people thought that the making of blue and white vases only started during the Ming dynasty. With the discovery of a blue and white vase (now in a British museum) that had the mark of a Yuan emperor, it was confirmed that blue and white vases were indeed first produced during the Yuan (Mongolian) dynasty.

Blue and whit vase with the mark of Yuan emperor

These vases are very valuable as there are very few (around 30 plus) left behind, mostly in museums. Ever since the auction of the above vase for a record price, there have been a lot of fakes appearing in the market.

Master in war strategies

 

Master's student who suffered defeats

The story painted on this vase is about a master (nick-named devil of the valley) in war strategies who was on a chariot driven by tigers to assist his student (Sun Bin, apparently suffered losses in war) in matter of warfare during the era of the warring states more than 2000 years ago. The name of the jar is thus known as the return of the devil of the valley. A military officer from Holland bought the vase in China more than a hundred years ago. At first experts thought that this vase was from the Ming dynasty and did not value it highly. With the discovery of another Yuan dynasty blue and white vase that had the Yuan emperor mark, the Yuan blue and white vases suddenly become the darling in collectors' heart.