Things To Do in Jurong East Singapore

Western Hub and Connectivity

Jurong East serves as the commercial and transport hub of Singapore's west, a major MRT interchange connecting the East-West and North-South lines with bus interchanges that make it a daily transit point for a large share of the city's western population. The area's development as a major commercial node has been deliberate and ongoing, with the government's Jurong Lake District project positioning it as Singapore's second central business district — a long-term project that will take decades to complete but is already visibly under way.

Jurong Lake Gardens

Jurong Lake Gardens is Singapore's third national garden, opened progressively since 2019 around the shores of Jurong Lake. The park offers lakeside walking and cycling routes, Chinese and Japanese garden areas with well-maintained classical landscapes, and boardwalk trails through wetland habitats that support resident and migratory birdlife. It is a genuine public amenity for the residential communities of the west, and the scale of the lake makes it one of the more peaceful places to spend time in a city that is otherwise extremely dense.

Shopping and Retail

The Jurong East area has one of the highest concentrations of shopping malls in Singapore outside the Orchard Road corridor. JEM, Westgate, and IMM — all within walking distance of each other — together offer an extensive retail experience that serves the surrounding residential population of the west. IMM in particular has carved out a niche as a discount and outlet destination, drawing shoppers from across the island looking for brand-name goods at reduced prices.

Jurong Lake District, the Gardens and Singapore's Western Hub

Jurong East is the commercial and transport hub of western Singapore, where three Mass Rapid Transit lines converge at Jurong East station and the Jurong Lake District — Singapore's second Central Business District in development — is transforming a former industrial area around Jurong Lake into a mixed-use precinct of offices, residences, and leisure facilities. The Chinese Garden and Japanese Garden, two heritage parks on islands in Jurong Lake connected by bridge to the lakeside, were built in the 1970s and reflect the Chinese and Japanese design traditions in classical garden form; the Chinese Garden's stone boat, pagodas, and zigzag bridge over the lake, and the Japanese Garden's stone lanterns, arched bridges, and raked gravel gardens provide the most concentrated classical Asian garden experience in Singapore. The Jurong Lake Gardens, opened in 2019 and integrating the earlier heritage gardens into a new 90-hectare public park with promenades, wetland areas, and a children's garden, is the largest new park development in Singapore in two decades and designed to serve the western residential population that the Marina Bay gardens serve for the center and east.

Science Center Singapore, Westgate and Jurong's Retail and Family Attractions

Science Center Singapore in Jurong East, opened in 1977 and expanded several times since, is the most visited science and technology museum in Singapore with over 850 interactive exhibits across more than 14 exhibition galleries covering physics, biology, mathematics, information technology, and environmental science. The Snow City facility adjacent to the Science Center provides the only permanent indoor snow environment in Singapore — including a 60-metre ski slope — in a format that gives the tropical city's residents and visitors a winter experience that would otherwise require an international flight. The Westgate, JEM, and IMM malls forming the Jurong Gateway retail cluster constitute the largest concentration of retail floor space outside the Orchard Road corridor and serve the residential population of western Singapore's HDB (Housing Development Board) new towns with a range of dining, retail, and entertainment that makes the district a self-sufficient commercial center rather than a satellite of the city core. The Jurong Bird Park, one of the largest bird parks in the world, relocated to a new site as part of the Mandai wildlife rejuvenation cluster while a new attraction is developed on the original Jurong site.

Jurong Island, the Industrial West and Singapore's Economic Geography

Jurong Island, the artificial island created by reclaiming and merging seven smaller islands off the western coast of Singapore and completed in 2009, is the most significant petrochemical and refining complex in Southeast Asia, housing over 100 international energy, chemical, and engineering companies on an island of 3,000 hectares whose creation involved the movement of 362 million cubic metres of sand. The island is not publicly accessible but its scale and the nighttime illumination of its processing facilities are visible from the Jurong East waterfront and from the expressway approaching from the west. The Tuas industrial zone extending west from Jurong toward the Malaysian border at Tuas Second Link houses the world's largest fully automated container port, Tuas Mega Port, currently under construction and designed to handle 65 million twenty-foot equivalent units annually when complete — consolidating all of Singapore's container operations at a single facility. The Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve on the northern coast west of Jurong, Singapore's first ASEAN Heritage Park, preserves mangrove and mudflat ecosystems supporting migratory birds on the East Asian Australasian Flyway and accessible for walking and birdwatching.