9th August: Singapore National Day

Today is Singapore's National Day - so here are some things you might not know about Singapore.

1. The name Singapore means "Lion City". The name was given to it by Sang Nila Utama, who thought he saw a lion there. He probably didn't, as there's no evidence that lions ever lived there, except, perhaps in the zoo. The animal he saw was more likely to have been a Malayan Tiger.
2. Singapore consists of 63 islands, including the main island, known as Singapore Island or Pulau Ujong in Malay, literally meaning "End Island". (According to a third century book about foreign countries, the first inhabitants of Singapore island were cannibals with five to six inch tails - I suspect they were no more real than the lion!) The land area was 581.5 km2 (224.5 sq mi) in the 1960s, and it has been getting bigger ever since thanks to ongoing land reclamation projects. At time of writing it stands at 718.3 km2 (277.3 sq mi), and is still growing.
3. Singapore is one of only three city states in the world, the others being Monaco and Vatican City. It's also the second most densely populated place in the world (after Monaco).
4. Singapore is home to the world's largest fountain (at Suntec City, made of cast bronze, it cost an estimated US$6 million to build in 1997); the world’s highest man-made waterfall (30 metres high, at Jurong BirdPark); the world's most expensive building (Marina Bay Sands, an Integrated Resort at Marina Bay -fyi that's the odd looking building that looks like three skyscrapers with a ship on top that you can see in the picture above); and the world's first night zoo.
5. The Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in Singapore contains more species of trees than the entire North American continent. The highest point is also here - Bukit Timah Hill at 163.63 m (537 ft).
6. Singapore has the world's highest percentage of millionaires, with one out of every six households having at least one million US dollars in disposable wealth. Only a millionaire could afford to run a car in Singapore. Not only are cars expensive to buy in the first place, but drivers must also pay for a Singaporean Certificate of Entitlement (COE), which entitles them to drive the car in Singapore for ten years. The COE itself costs as much as a Porsche would in the US.
7. The national symbol is the "Merlion", half lion, half fish - the lion for the name of the name of the country and the fish for its maritime history. The national flower of Singapore is the Vanda 'Miss Joaquim' named in memory of the woman who discovered the flower in her garden at Tanjong Pagar in 1893. The "national fruit" of Singapore is the durian, an exotic fruit known for being extremely smelly - so much so that it is banned on public transport in many places. It tastes better than it smells. Novelist Anthony Burgess wrote that eating durian is "like eating sweet raspberry blancmange in the lavatory".
8. The words to Singapore's National Anthem, “Onward Singapore,” are written in microtext on the back of the $1000 note.
9. The Singapore Sling was first served in 1915 at the Long Bar of the Raffles Hotel (named for Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles who founded modern Singapore in 1819). The ingredients are gin, Cointreau, cherry brandy, Dom Benedictine, pineapple juice, Grenadine, Angoustura bitters and limes.
10. The people of Singapore have the fastest walking speed in the world, according to research by the British Council. They clock up 18 metres in 10.55 seconds, or 6.15km an hour, which is, incidentally, the flight speed of a bumble bee.