Towrs update: England, China, and more

It's been a busy couple of weeks at Towrs.  We've added hundreds of buildings from dozens of cities so that you can admire, learn about, and enjoy unique architecture from around the world.

Among the cities we've added:

• China
• Macau
• Kowloon
• Tung Chung
• Hong Kong
• Kowloon
• Singapore
• Singapore
• Sentosa Island
• Italy
• Procida
• Ischia Porto
• Ischia Ponte
• Naples
• Turkey
• Istanbul
• Uskudar
• Belgium
• Brussels
• England
• London
• Surrey
• France
• Paris

Take a look around, and feel free to leave you comments on each building.  We enjoy reading what you have to say, and other people do as well.

We Love Chinatowns! Singapore Edition

We love Chinatowns.  We've been to Chinatowns from New York to Japan to this one in Singapore.  The Singapore one is a little different, though.  Most Chinatowns are dark, marginal places.  Places where you can buy black or grey market goods.  Things that may or may not have passed into the country legally.  Exotic electronics and knock-off fragrances.  Questionable herbs and, quite literally, forbidden fruit.

Singapore's Chinatown is different.  Very different.  Like most of the rest of the squeaky-clean city-state, this Chinatown is squeaky clean.  The items on offer are no different than you'd find in any nearby shop.  And the prices aren't exactly a bargain, either.   The casual shopper is left with the distinct impression that only items authorized by the government are allowed to be sold, and quite likely at government-mandated prices.    It is a sanitized, safe, clean, Disneyfied version of the Chinatowns of the rest of the world.    And for that, it is unique and special.

Slice of Life: No Way Out

Don't let the cheery illuminated Exit sign fool you.  This wall at the end of a corridor at the Asian Civilizations Museum (1 Empress Place) in Singapore means business when it says "No Way Out."  Seems appropriate enough for a Friday the 13th.

More Singapore buildings.

Slice of Life: The Outdoor Store

The majority of people who read this blog are in the colder portions of the northern hemisphere.  That's why this picture may be surprising to them.  It turns out that in warmer cities, sometimes food stores are outside.  And not just fresh fruit shops -- entire convenience stores are often set up on sidewalks, like this  one in Singapore.  At least this one's in a tent.  I've seen full retail stores set up with nothing overhead at all.  And not fly-by-night mom-and-pop operations.  Real, branded chain stores like the 7-Eleven above.  It make sense when you think about it.  When you're just a few degrees off the equator it makes more sense to only refrigerate what needs to be refrigerated, and leave the rest exposed.