Refreshed heritage trail in Yishun offers two routes for exploration

SINGAPORE – Yishun’s newly refreshed heritage trail now features two curated routes, each offering a different window into the neighbourhood’s past.

The Rockets and Reservoirs route journeys from present-day Yishun into its past, highlighting the town’s namesake, pioneer Lim Nee Soon. The Yishun Ring route traces the modern ring road to reveal the legacy of the former Chye Kay Village.

The self-guided trail spans 17 landmarks, with eight information markers along the way.

Five of the markers are at new sites that were not marked on the former Sembawang-Yishun heritage trail, which was launched in 2010 and retired in 2021.

The new standalone Yishun trail showcases the area’s evolution – from the home of the Orang Seletar, to a hub for rubber and pineapple cultivation, and finally into today’s Yishun New Town.

Among the newly marked sites is Yishun’s only Roman Catholic church, the Church of Our Lady Star of the Sea. Its origins date back to 1926, when masses were held for Catholic Tamil and Malayalee dock workers at Sembawang Naval Base.

A permanent church was dedicated in 1953 before the congregation relocated to Yishun in 1992. The building’s design reflects its maritime roots, and it can host over 1,500 people at a time.

Another new stop is Sree Maha Mariamman Temple, a Hindu shrine founded by rubber estate workers in the 1930s in Nee Soon Village before it moved to Yishun in 1997.

Its rajagopuram, an ornate golden entrance, was restored in June, and the temple’s annual Aadipoora silver chariot procession continues to unite Yishun’s communities.

The neighbouring Masjid Ahmad Ibrahim and Spiritual Grace Presbyterian Church share a trail marker.

The mosque was the first in Nee Soon Village built by Muslim residents in the 1950s. The church relocated to its present site, provided by the pioneer Lim, in 1967.

The other marked additions are Gurwara Sahib Yishun, a Sikh place of worship, and institutions serving the community – Nam Hong Siang Theon Mutual Aid Organisation, Ho Pek San Temple and Seng Pang Tua Pek Kong Temple.

Oh Ghim Ho, chairman of Ho Peck San Temple, said that although the temple has grown from a small hut when it was established in the 1990s into a larger place of worship, the public’s devotion to it has remained unchanged.

Oh’s father helped with the temple’s upkeep and met his friends at a local coffee shop every day to discuss matters regarding the temple. This responsibility was passed down through the generations.

On his time growing up around the temple, Oh, 70, said: “I miss the kampong spirit and the atmosphere – walking here and there, greeting people and asking if they have eaten.”

A landmark carried over from the retired Sembawang-Yishun trail is the former Nee Soon Post Office, located at the junction of Upper Thomson, Sembawang and Mandai roads.

Built in 1939, it is the only surviving pre-war structure from Nee Soon Village. Now repurposed as a pet sanctuary, the building retains its colonial-era architecture, with a wall-embedded letterbox bearing the logo of the former Telecommunication Authority of Singapore.

Until the post office closed in the 1990s, it was part of the bustling heart of the village, serving people and businesses across the neighbourhood.

Former Nee Soon resident Asokan Raghavan, 74, recalled posting letters to his friends before moving away in 1975.

“It’s a different planet now,” he said when comparing Yishun New Town to Nee Soon.

In 1986, when Raghavan last visited the lane where his childhood home was located, it was deserted. But a nearby stream where he used to play at with his friends was still there.

“(My old house) doesn’t exist any more... but I like to think back to those days,” he said.