Wang Qing Yuan (晚晴园) - Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall

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Sunday, 29th January 2012

Visiting Wang Qing Yuan (aka Dr Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall) at Tai Gin Road (off Balestier Road) was a last minute affair. Never mind that there were more relatives' homes that I was supposed to visit this afternoon. And never mind that there were birthday celebrations and a farewell dinner that I was supposed to attend the very same evening.

This was just one of those few lousy moments that I genuinely wanted some peace and quiet.

And since I had combed through all the other museums during the previous open houses, I just wanted to add Wang Qing Yuan to my portfolio. This was the latest museum to be included under the National Heritage Board umbrella. No prizes for guessing it right, the $4 admission was waived and this would continue throughout the lunar new year period. All museums' buffs out there would certainly stand to benefit from it.

Arrival at Wang Qing Yuan after 1.30pm today, the small villa wasn't too crowded considering that it was a Sunday afternoon. It didn't took long for me to get my bearings right, to go through the exhibits that were spread across 2 floors of the building.

Since my interests were almost always focused on WWII history, the exhibits at Wang Jing Yuan did not seem to captivate me as much as I had envisaged. Still, I found the complimentary 1.5 hours Mandarin guided tour an enriching experience as it told the story of Dr Sun Yat Sen's revolutionary activities in Singapore in great details. Kudos to the volunteer guide who took great pains to share his interpretation with us.

4pm, it was time for me to say goodbye to Wang Qing Yuan. I had in fact spent my last 2.5 hours in this lovely enclosure. Certainly, this Sunday afternoon visit was fruitful as I had acquired some knowledge of that part of history that I wasn't familiar with.

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