Ang Mo Kio
Total area : 6.38 km²Residential area : 2.83 km²
Dwelling units : 47,806
Projected ultimate : 58,000
Population : 162,200Ang Mo Kio is a heartland new town located in north central Singapore, and is generally within the North-East Region. It has a town centre which is Ang Mo Kio Neighbourhood 7 and six neighbourhoods. Although containing many of the common features of the island nation's neighbourhoods, e.g. hawker centres, wet markets and HDB housing blocks, residents see the town as retaining a distinctive identity. 
Ang Mo Kio New Town is the seventh New Town to be built in Singapore. The early stage of construction took place in 1973 by the Housing and Development Board under the Ministry of National Development. After over thirty years of existence, it is considered one of the matured housing estates with established markets, schools, institutions, community, residential, administrative centers, and even a community hospital and other important amenities for the housing residents.
Origin of the nameThe locality's name is believed by some to derive from the Hokkien phrase Ang Mo Kio (红毛桥), meaning "Westerner Bridge". The term ang mo (literally "red hair") is a somewhat derogatory Hokkien reference to the people with fair hair who settled from the West and, because such a name might be considered unflattering, it is now written as 宏茂桥 which is pronounced in an almost identical way but means "Bridge of Expansiveness and Prosperity". Some local people have incorrectly assumed that the new version of the name refers to the bridges at the seventh milestone of Thomson Road (found at the junction of Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 and Thomson Road). These two old bridges were known as Or-kio ("black bridges") in the local spoken dialects. Research suggests that neither of these bridges were officially named, but they spanned the canal and the old Kallang River forming a link to the Peirce Reservoir.The actual source of the name comes from the old survey maps which label the land as "Mukim of Ang Mo Kio" (Mukim meaning "area" or "district" in Malay). The word "Ang Mo" 红毛 may in fact not refer to Westerners. Rather, it is derived from two separate combined phrases in Hokkien. Ang Mo Dan means "rambutan" 红毛丹, a local fruit, red and covered in hair, found plentifully around the areas of old kampongs. Likely the second suffix "kio" 桥 ("bridge" or "bridges" in Hokkien) was added to the prefix "Ang Mo" 红毛 as an additional description to indicate a more precise location that residents would recognize i.e.红毛桥. There were many concrete bridges built by the old kampong dwellers. It first appears on the early maps drawn by surveyors who took those two phrases and combined them to form "Mukim of Ang Mo Kio" ("District of Ang Mo Kio"). The actual location of Ang Mo Kio New Town has been also known by the former name Kou-teu kio, Hokkien for "Ninth Bridge".Folklore about the name Ang Mo KioThere is a history page to the name Ang Mo Kio. Ang Mo Kio means “Red Hair Bridge” in the local dialect. It actually refers to a disused bridge that links the western part of the current Ang Mo Kio estate to the Thomson Estate.The Red Hair referred by the locals was a British Lady called Lady Jennifer Windsor. Lady Windsor was the wife of Lord Windsor, a wealthy merchant who had a huge estate in the Upper Thomson Area in the 1920s till after World War II.It was a tragic incident that linked Lady Windsor to an unnamed crossing that bridged a stream running off the Pierce Reservoir. The incident happened in 1923 when Lady Windsor lost 3 of her children; Harry, Paul and Angela. The 3 children were supposed to have visited a family friend staying in the Upper Thomson area, and were lost in the woods. It was later found that the 2 boys were playing by the wooden crossing when a sudden gush swept them away. Their bodies were found about 2 miles from the bridge. However, the body of Angela was never found.Since that eventful day, locals started hearing cries of a little girl and that prompted Lady Windsor to stay by the bridge for the rest of her life. She told her close friends that she had heard her daughter voices by the bridge and she wanted to accompany her soul. Lady Windsor would spend the whole day by the bridge, reading or knitting. People soon got used to her perpetual presence by the bridge that they soon referred to the bridge as the “Red Hair Bridge”; which in its right sense should have been called “Lady Windsor Bridge”.Lady Windsor died in 1963 and it was only thereafter that locals no longer hear the voices of the little girl. Today, one could still see the disused bridge near the intersection of Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 and Upper Thomson Road.Another logical explanation would be: Ang Mo Kio was named in reference to Mr A. E. Thomson. Thomson was a civil engineer from the British Royal Army. He was responsible for building a bridge during the colonial days of Singapore, to facilitate logistic transportation to the nearby British military bases at Seletar. After the bridge was completed, the locals often referred to it as Ang Mo Kio or "Caucasian Bridge". Nowadays, "Ang Mo" is a popular term to refer to Caucasian in Singapore.The name "Thomson" was also used extensively in the naming of several roads in and around Ang Mo Kio. This above version of explanation is now currently being listed at the Heritage Corridor in Deyi Secondary School located in Ang Mo Kio. The explanation is also more widely accepted by the local historians. The bridge, however, has no longer existed. It was, according to local historians, located at the junction of Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 and Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8. Little of the bridge built by Thomson remain.Schools in Ang Mo KioKindergartens
Al-Muttaqin Mosque Kindergarten Primary Schools
Anderson Primary School
Ang Mo Kio Primary School
Da Qiao Primary School
Jing Shan Primary School
Mayflower Primary School
Teck Ghee Primary School
Townsville Primary School Secondary Schools
Anderson Secondary School
Ang Mo Kio Secondary School
CHIJ Saint Nicholas Girls' School
Chong Boon Secondary School
Deyi Secondary School
Mayflower Secondary School
Presbyterian Hign School
Yio Chu Kang Secondary School
Peirce Secondary School Junior Colleges
Anderson Junior College
Tertiaries
ITE College West (Ang Mo Kio Campus) Nanyang PolytechnicSpecial Schools
Chaoyang School (APSN) Pathlight School 
Ang Mo Kio MRT station and Ang Mo Kio bus interchange.
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