The Cabinet of Curiosities Yishun Heritage Trail is still taking bookings after its 3 October launch. Hidden Heritage lists three remaining public slots: Saturday 17 October, Sunday 25 October and Saturday 31 October, each from 10.30am to 12.30pm. Tickets are $30. Singaporeans 18 and up can pay the full amount with SG CulturePass credits. You meet at Yishun MRT Exit A and finish at Block 928 Yishun Central, a two-hour loop that never needs Northpoint as a waypoint.
FMAS, the Federation of Merchants' Associations, Singapore, is running this as the first Heartland Trail, a three-year plan to put at least nine guided precinct walks on the map by 2028. Hidden Heritage Collective leads the walk. The Yishun Central Merchant Association rounded up the shops. Lianhe Zaobao reported that the 3 October group was capped at 20, then stretched to 27 after demand. As of that Saturday night, more than 90 percent of remaining tickets had already sold. Zaobao also wrote that five more sessions run through 28 November. Treat the Hidden Heritage page as the live calendar if those extra November dates appear later.
What you actually eat and hold
This is not a plaque-reading heritage walk. Guides take you inside the shops. Eventbrite and the official tour page list the same beats: photograph Golden Village Yishun, the rocket-shaped cinema at Yishun 10, before the refresh swallows the landmark. Sample kueh pie tee, popiah and other Peranakan snacks, then hear why those "classic" recipes are more mixed-up than the tourist copy suggests. Step into an aquarium and talk arowana, luck and the old lottery-number folklore around ornamental fish. Eat a giant chicken floss bun at an old-school bakery and hunt pastries that have already vanished from most of Singapore.
The biscuit stop is Leelicious at 926 Yishun Central 1. Gelvan Ong and Lee Lee Jong, a couple in their 50s, run the shop. AsiaOne's Kimi Ang, who walked the inaugural trail, was served a tin-platter tasting of three to five retro biscuits. Some of those tins, Hidden Heritage says, take up to a year to source. Lee Jong told AsiaOne the point is not only sales. She wants people to learn the cluster around Yishun Town Centre instead of treating Northpoint as the whole neighbourhood. Zaobao interviewed the same shop as 王福财, 53, and 杨丽丽, 52, who took over about a year ago because they did not want the old biscuit trade to die.
The last stop is Just Ants, Singapore's only physical ant shop, run by hobbyist John Ye, 47. You get a short entomology lesson, feed honey and worms to ants, handle isopods, and if you want the selfie, hold a Madagascar hissing cockroach. Ye told Zaobao the hobby is niche but the trade is steady, with schools and overseas visitors mixed into the regulars. Hao Bang General Merchandise is another stop on the published photo trail, the sort of heartland hardware-and-sundries shop you walk past on an MRT errand and never enter.
Why FMAS started in Yishun, not Katong
FMAS president Yeo Hiang Meng framed the trails as a way to compete on character rather than price, with the Johor Bahru-Singapore RTS Link due at the end of the year. Executive director Jon Lee, named 李庆文 in Zaobao, said Yishun Central went first because the local merchants' association actually organised the shops and helped plot the route. The next trail is already locked for Bishan. MP Goh Hanyan, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for MCCY and MSE, and Nee Soon GRC MP, joined the 3 October group. She told the Chinese press that Singapore still hides stories people fly overseas to find.
The goodie bag is worth $30 on paper. AsiaOne's September announcement listed a sling bag, foldable bucket hat, hand fan, shop vouchers and extra bits from the Yishun Central Merchant Association. The October write-up from the same paper named the hat and the precinct vouchers. Either way, the bag is part of the ticket, not an upsell at the counter.
Wear walking shoes. Bring water and a poncho. Hidden Heritage says the walk continues in rain. Nearest parking is the HDB block by Yishun MRT. If you miss the start, the confirmation WhatsApp has the guide's number. No refunds on Eventbrite. Book on the Hidden Heritage tour page rather than a reseller if you want the current date list. If those 17, 25 and 31 October slots are gone, check again for any November additions Zaobao flagged, or wait for Bishan. The NHB self-guided Yishun Heritage Trail, refreshed in July with 17 sites and two bus-and-walk routes, is still free if you want the town's older story without a $30 ticket.
Practical Details
- Dates: Saturday 17 October, Sunday 25 October, Saturday 31 October 2026. Inaugural walk ran 3 October. Lianhe Zaobao reported further sessions through 28 November.
- Time: 10.30am to 12.30pm
- Meeting point: Yishun MRT (NS13), Exit A
- End point: Block 928 Yishun Central
- Price: $30 per person, adult or child. Full amount can be paid with SG CulturePass.
- Includes: Guided walk, light bites, $30 goodie bag with hat, fan and precinct vouchers
- Nearest MRT: Yishun (NS13)
- Website: Cabinet of Curiosities on Hidden Heritage
