Haw Par Villa

Haw Par Villa on Pasir Panjang Road in Singapore is a theme park of Chinese mythology and folk religion, built from 1937 by Burmese-Chinese Tiger Balm magnate Aw Boon Haw for his brother Aw Boon Par. Across eight hectares stand around 1,000 garishly painted concrete and plaster statues with scenes from Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. The most famous part is the Ten Courts of Hell, a walk-through tunnel with brutal torture scenes for each sin: tax cheats boiled in oil, adulterers crushed. Generations of Singaporean kids were taken here by anxious parents and supplied with lifelong nightmares. Entry is free; the park feels run-down, eccentric and photogenically bizarre, one of the strangest sights in Southeast Asia.