Bright Lights and Giant Christmas Tree

It´s mid-November 2004 and it´s looking a lot like Christmas at Singapore´s shopping street Orchard Road. Among the highlights is a 100-foot Christmas tree, the tallest ever staged in Singapore. There will be a 2000-sq-foot outdoor skating rink (the size of a basketball court just behind the Orchard MRT station) will also be ready by Christmas. To add to the festive cheer, Singapore´s Tourism Board is offering tourists free rides on the Hippo bus between 13 November 2004 and 2 January 2005.

To usher in the New Year 2005, there will be seven venues for countdown parties, including the Esplanade and Downtown East.   The Tourism Board says it hopes to attract more than the 1.8 million visitors who joined the Christmas celebrations last year.