Little Guilin

Bukit Batok Town Park was made from a granite quarry that closed and filled with water, and the result is a lake with pale rock faces and outcrops rising straight out of it, which Singaporeans decided resembled the karst landscape of Guilin in China and named accordingly. The comparison is generous but the place is genuinely striking for a residential neighbourhood: a green lake with cliffs, surrounded by housing blocks. The name is a local coinage that stuck, and the comparison is made in earnest rather than as marketing; the granite here was quarried into the 1980s before the pit filled with water.

History

The park was Gammon Quarry, where the local Gombak norite was cut; when quarrying below sea level began to threaten the ecology, the quarries closed and the pit filled with rainwater, and in 1984 the Housing and Development Board, which had planned to fill it in, kept it instead. In 1996 park connectors linked it to the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (Wikipedia, Bukit Batok Town Park).

What's there

• The quarry lake - green water below pale granite cliffs.
• The rock outcrops - stone rising directly out of the water.
• The lakeside path - a short walk round the water with viewpoints.
• The setting - a dramatic landscape in the middle of a housing estate.

When to go

Year round; morning light on the rock faces is best. The park is open at all hours. Afternoon storms are frequent.

What to expect

The Guilin comparison is a stretch and sets expectations too high. The park is small and half an hour covers it. Swimming and fishing are prohibited.

Nearby

Bukit Batok Nature Park is south, and Jurong is west.

Key facts