Singapore is an unlikely success story. Once a simple fishing village, it was founded in 1819 by Sir Stamford Raffles, an official of the British East India Company, who decided it was the perfect location for a trading station. Since then it has become one of the world’s most prosperous cities. Singapore, known as the Lion City, is by far the largest and most significant island alongside the others that make up Singapore state. Here, especially at the mouth of the Singapore River, Asian tradition meets modern technology - gleaming skyscrapers tower over traditional architecture, while squat Chinese and Hindu temples stud the city.
