ShiJie Is Unstoppable: August 2011

My Home, Boon Lay Place

Boon Lay is one of the places which is part of Jurong and I have been living here for 20 over years. Much of my memories are all here as well simply because I live here, grew up here, play here, study here , work here and roam here.
However in Singapore, on an estimation of 6 months it is already enough to see changes happening around you and the place where I stay in which is known as Boon Lay is also no exception. Many of the childhood memories things that used to existed in Boon Lay does not exist anymore today.

Boon Lay Shopping center

Not many of the things today are that old. Many of the things has changed, already ! Recently, I came to know that Boon Lay Shopping center is going to be upgraded very soon. I have decided to quickly take photos of this shopping center before what I see today don’t exist anymore. By then, the photos which I have taken currently will have turned historical photos of tomorrow.

In fact, many of the thing of Boon Lay in past , I do not have anything to recall and look back at simply because there is no photos of those days. This time I will not take the chance to miss this opportunity to take some historical photos.
The photos which I have taken is already being uploaded on photobucket and it can be found here

Boon Lay Shopping center Directory

The below is the oldest and unchanged directory of Boon Lay Shopping center. Seriously speaking I really do wonder even if the directory is up to date?

Next, this is the name list of the tendents of Boon Lay Shopping center who have agree or disagreed to the upgrading.

Upgrade Preview

You may want to take a look at the preview of Boon Lay Shopping center after the upgrade. They will be as follows below in which the 1st picture shows the front view which is facing the main road

The below 2nd photo will the side view which is facing the boon lay Hawker and Market.

Existing Pictures as on 2010

Now you may want to compare those photos with current existing ones which will be as follows below starting with front view

Next, we shall proceed to the side view which is facing the Boon Lay Hawker and Market which will be as follows below

Critical Pic ! Kenna Fire Many Times Here !

The next photo below will be the most important one as this is one of the many reasons why Boon Lay Shopping center has been proposed too many times for an upgrade

The thing that makes this photo very special and why I emphasis on it that much is that in the past, ( by the way this past is not really that far) Boon Lay Shopping center had caught fire around 2 times within a year, yearly in the past and that the location where which the fire and smoke is somewhere from this exact place where you see in the photo. But anyways, after sometime things have already improved and fire incident is getting lesser and lesser especially currently.

Community Corner

In the below photo is one of the oldest portion of the shopping center where there is a community corner and shops. In the phase of the upgrade, this is one of portion that will be upgraded.

The Legendary Bridge !

Another portion of the upgrade includes the most icon part which is the bridge as shown below

Perimeter & Exteriors

Now let’s continue taking a look at the perimeter of this shopping center before we move on next to level by level’s exterior and interior as well as areas of the shopping center.

The following photos will be the perimeter and the exteriors of the shopping center.

From the above pics, you can see many shops and coffee shops. Some of which are really very old and they are definitely much older than myself but there are also some which are not. For those who has been living in Boon Lay area for several years and who also find Boon Lay very homely, this shopping center is definitely one of the things which brings you much memories.

Inner Area

Next, let’s us move on to the inner area of the shopping center.

Boon Lay Shopping center Level 1 Interior

Now that we are done with the Inner area , we will next proceed on to the Level 1 interior of the Shopping center.

We shall begin with this coffee shop which has changed hands of owner a few times in the past. One of which was KFC which had the shortest period in this area. The current photo that you see is most likely the 3rd or the 4th owner of this particular place.

In the below pic, the photo and the clothes shop are pretty old. The Religious shop which is inside one corner of the pic is rather new.

In the below picture, Money Max is pretty new. The last owner of that place was a retail shop which sells movies

The few shops that you see next are definitely very old

The shops you see next are definitely very new ! The owners of their shops previously would be very old

Now, this shop is definitely very old !

Now let us move on to take a look at more shops

Saw the barber shop in the picture above? That is the place where I would go for hair cut most of the time. In fact one of my relatives is one of bosses of that company.

Well, that is about all for Level 1 in brief. I did not take photos of each and every shops detailedly, What was taken was quick snap shots of the Boon Lay Shopping center Level 1. If you take a quick glance at the shops, most of which are Chinese shops owned by a mixture of Singaporeans, Malaysians, and China Chinese. There are also Thailand Thais and India Indians shops in Level 1.

Boon Lay Shopping center Level 2

Next let’s move on to level 2. If you were to take a look at level 2 it will be a very different case from what you had seen in level 1. Now let us proceed on !

This Myanmar shop as you have seen above is definitely very new ! The previous owner of the shop has been there very very long !

The above pic is a mixture of old and new shops, with much massage shops and barber. In the next following pics you will see another different set of shops.

I should believe you had seen several Myanmar shops in this level 2. Estimated, there are around 6 shops in level 2 of Boon Lay Shopping center alone.
Now let’s look at other parts of level 2

And next take a look at this very very new shop of level 2 in Boon Lay Shopping center. What I am guessing is that this should be a Taiwanese shop

Finally, can just see how good the business is for the lottery? The queue is always this long

There is really so much gamblers with high hopes to strike lottery. This queue that you see is still not long enough. In Fact, the queue has ever reach to a point where which it is all the way till start point of the bridge even.

From this level 2 as you can see, there are certainly many Myanmar shops and you can basically considered it that Myanmar has conquered level 2 of Boon Lay Shopping center. Besides the Myanmar shops there are also many Lan gaming shops which is a mixture of India Indians and China Chinese. If you were to look at Level 1 and 2, overall China Chinese has captured the market of Lan gaming Internet shops in Boon Lay Shopping center.

Boon Lay Shopping center Level 3

Finally it is Level 3’s turn.

this 1st pic, previously it was vacant for a very long time until pool, and arcade took over. This is the 2nd or 3rd owner of this place now.

As to this pic, this is definitely the 2nd owner of this place and it is really very new ! Previously it was Boon Lay Raja restaurant which had been occupying this place for a super long time. It was 1st in the old swimming pool of Boon Lay and move on to level 3 this location of Boon Lay Shopping center and then now it is gone! How sad !

Other Links

You can also refer to below for other related links of Boon Lay related Photos and other informations

Boon Lay Shopping Centre past to present

Over the years much has changed. Boon Lay this area used to be a place where which only the old who are Singaporeans, Malaysians, Indonesians, and PR(s) ( Permanent Residents). However in the recent years, much Thais, Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, India Indians, Especially and Particularly China Chinese and Myanmar People in big numbers have moved into this little area of Boon Lay and it really seems like that Boon Lay has become into Little Asia ( 小亚洲) .

With this changes of people living in Boon Lay area, Boon Lay Shopping centre also had changes in terms of the shops and customers over the years with the change of and increase in residents of Boon Lay.
If you were walk down today in Boon Lay shopping centre and take an extremely close look, you will relise how much of a super minority Singaporeans really are today in Boon Lay.

Commentary on my Boon Lay Shopping Centre

NTUC is a place where my friends, myself and my family go very often. In fact NTUC itself interior has also changed a lot over the years.

Over the years I have changed barber 3 times. During my childhood days it was a Chinese Barber on level 1. during my Teenage days it was a Malay barber on level 2 and finally in my Adulthood it is a salon on level 1 which I had earlier mentioned above.

The clothes shop of level 2 in Boon Lay Shopping Centre is the place my mother had used to buy clothes for me before I was an adult. Well frankly speaking I personally prefer clothes from Jurong Point than Boon Lay Shopping Centre. I always notice that the people who buy clothes in Boon Lay Shopping centre are the elderly, poor folks and foreigners of Boon Lay area.

Often coach bus to Genting of Malaysia and other areas will have their pick up point from Boon Lay Shopping centre and the business in this aspect is very good all this while.

Many times I would have my meals at Boon Lay Shopping centre if not the Boon Lay Hawker. I roam a lot in Boon Lay Shopping Centre during my younger days and lesser currently.

Frankly speaking there is just 1 thing which puzzles me. The proposal for upgrade of this Boon Lay Shopping Centre has been suggested too many times and at the same time rejected by the tendents too many times as well.

How exactly did they successfully get these tendents to agree to the upgrade this time when they have been strongly against the idea of upgrade?

This Boon Lay Shopping Centre is a very friendly neighbourbood shopping centre and it is a very convenient place I would personally say.

Seeing that a board which states that this Shopping centre will be upgraded, On December 5^th as on Sunday during the afternoon timing I went to take photos of this place while nothing else has been changed yet.

ShiJie Is Unstoppable

Sunday, 14 August 2011

Boon Lay Shopping Centre December 2010 before Upgrade