Whampoa, Singapore

Whampoa is a housing estate located in the subzone of Balestier, which is a part of Novena planning area in Singapore, as defined by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. Within the context of the Housing and Development Board (HDB), however, Whampoa forms part of the Kallang/Whampoa New Town, together with the various housing precincts located in the adjacent Kallang planning area. This makes Kallang/Whampoa the only HDB new town that encompasses two planning areas, namely Novena and Kallang.

The area was named after Hoo Ah Kay, who was better known as "Whampoa" (his place of birth; Chinese: 黃埔; pinyin: Huángpǔ) during the early years of Singapore as a British settlement. His many contributions to the Straits Settlements, and that he could speak both Chinese and English well, thus made him an important bridge between the two communities. The respect for his contributions thus resulted in this area being named after him.

The Whampoa area has a significantly higher proportion of elderly and has garnered significant media attention with regard to active ageing programmes.

Facilities

As the area is mainly a housing estate consisting many blocks of the Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats, along with facilities such as a wet market and a hawker centre. The Whampoa Hawker centre has two food markets, one a night market and the other a day market. There is also a community club, a mosque, a Chinese temple (Fu Hup Thong Fook Tak Kung Temple or 芋峡塘福德宫), a NKF kidney dialysis centre and the Saint Michael's Bus Terminal.

Politics

The Whampoa area is part of Jalan Besar GRC (formerly known as Jalan Besar Group Representation Constituency until 2011 and as Whampoa Single Member Constituency until 2015). The current Member of Parliament (MP) is Mr Heng Chee How.

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