The airport blues

If I were catching a flight, I’d happily take the bus in Guangzhou, but not Singapore. Why?

Rural urbanism?

Does the rural environment necessitate a rejection of the human-centric principles we base urbanism on in the cities? An emerging Chinese rural development trend firmly says no.

Thinking about scales

Singapore is far bigger than we usually think it is. It’s beneficial to urban planning to not think of our 728 sqkm space as merely one city, but much more.

Hearts of iron

What keeps the top 50 cities in China active, vibrant and economically powerful despite their crushingly massive population sizes? Their effective and elaborate rail rapid transit systems. Here’s a quick review (not the most representative though) of the Chinese metro experience.

Charting our history

As a piece of our rail infrastructure becomes history, this is perhaps our chance to formalise the process of preserving our own transport history.

Boots on ground, bags in hand

Notes from a car-lite experience where tourism and shopping come together.

Onward to 2024!

2023 has been a hectic year for many of us and for transport for Singapore. Here’s to what’s next in the coming year. Will it be as optimistic as the post title?

Campus tour

A visit to Huawei’s Dongguan campus leaves me amazed. The only pity? It’s a semi-closed city, only accessible to Huawei researchers and approved visitors. Who knew a tech behemoth’s RnD campus would be a model for New Urbanism?

Dispatch from the East

A collection of my observations of public transport and urbanism across some Chinese cities I was in across the past few days. Part 1.

The charm of imperfection

While we’ve all been hating on our MRT system, perhaps we can still find a bit of joy in it’s imperfections.