For many people, they generally have two wishes when traveling abroad: first, to taste the unique local food, and second, to get as much value for money as possible.

Singapore’s “hawker centers” not only make these two wishes come true, but the urban management experience revealed in them can also be used for our reference.

Today's hawker centers have become an indispensable "scene" in Singapore's food culture, embodying a kind of urban order, and are even listed as "one of the thousand places that everyone must visit in their lifetime."

There have also been troubles caused by random stalls. As early as the founding of the People's Republic of China, Singapore also faced the trouble caused by small traders and hawkers setting up stalls at will.

Lee Kuan Yew described it this way in his memoirs: "Thousands of people sell food on sidewalks and streets, completely ignoring traffic, sanitation and other issues. The result is piles of garbage on the streets, causing congestion, and the stench of rotten food

There is a peculiar smell, everything is messy and dirty, and many corners of the city have turned into slums. "This is actually the result of the colonial period, when the colonial authorities adopted a "double no" policy against street vendors, that is, they were illegal and did not ban them.

.

This almost laissez-faire policy has also brought another headache to Singapore, which is the forced collection of protection fees by secret society parties.

They usually demarcate territory and force vendors to pay protection fees, otherwise they will cause trouble and destroy stalls, making it impossible for you to do business.

Over time, this has become an important source of income for underworld groups, and has also become an important incentive for gangs to frequently fight and grab territory.

However, the newly independent Singapore government does not believe that the above problems can be eradicated by strengthening law enforcement alone.

Lee Kuan Yew said frankly, "(It will have to wait until) we can provide many job opportunities, then the laws can be enforced and the streets can be sorted out."

Registering street vendors In 1968, the Singapore government took action to register street vendors.

In order to "fix" hawkers, the government also launched a hawker relocation plan.

Through agencies such as the HDB and the Urban Renewal Authority, we build hawker centers with complete water and electricity facilities, ventilation and hygiene, and sublease stalls to street vendors at very favorable prices to attract them to settle in.

The relevant preferential packages provided by the government continued until 1990.

Lee Kuan Yew said in his memoirs, "We issued cooked food hawker licenses and moved the hawkers off the sidewalks and roads to nearby cooked food centers that were strictly built and equipped with water pipes, sewers and garbage disposal systems. By the 1980s, all hawkers were licensed

Many of them are excellent cooks, and tourists have come here after hearing the news. Some of them have become millionaires, driving Mercedes-Benz cars and hiring waiters." After all the vendors were resettled, Singapore began to implement the stall quota system.

, allowing those first-generation hawkers who obtained stalls with government subsidies to transfer their lease rights, and new tenants must pay rent to the government at market prices.

This allows hawkers to have greater autonomy over their stalls and even earn an income when they exit the business.

The government will also regularly open vacant stalls to the public for bidding.

Citizens who are interested in running a hawker business can obtain stalls in hawker centers at market prices.

However, the uniform and centralized management later led to the neglect of some traditional markets.

For example, the Chinatown area, once known as Singapore's Chinatown, has lost its former charm in the eyes of Singaporeans, causing one or two generations of citizens to lament the disappearance of collective memory and traditions.

To this end, the Singaporean government later took countermeasures by setting up food streets with fixed street stalls in Chinatown and other places, and allowing grassroots organizations and federations of industry and commerce to host night markets or New Year markets, trying to allow some vendors to operate under orderly management.

Return to the streets.

Guaranteeing hawkers to hold licenses to set up stalls Singapore is the only country in the world where all street vendors must hold licenses to set up stalls. In addition to introducing hawker center operations to food vendors, it also issues mobile hawker licenses, which are divided into artisans, newspapers

, frozen desserts, mobile carts and ***five other categories.

The Singapore government implements an orderly and restricted opening policy for mobile vendors, restricting mobile vendors to operate at certain times and locations, and must meet certain health standards.

The urban area is divided into "absolute prohibited areas", "relative prohibited areas" and "diversion areas", and management strategies such as strict management, control and standardization are adopted respectively to control mobile vendors according to road section management standards.

Singapore has a relatively complete legal system. There are more than 400 types of legislation on urban management alone, so that every work has laws to follow.

Among the laws that regulate hawker centers are the Public Health and Environmental Hygiene (Food Hygiene) Regulations formulated by the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, which are implemented by the National Environment Agency of Singapore and have formulated the Public Health and Health Regulations, which is innovative.

The "Foul Points System" management method has issued a "Food Hygiene Manual" to each vendor.

While accepting management and enjoying rights and obligations, many mobile vendors also attach great importance to safeguarding their own rights and interests.

Small traders in Singapore usually join corresponding associations and are protected by industry associations.

Zhang Yingying, who runs a delicatessen shop, joined the Municipal Small Food Sellers Industry Association and paid a weekly membership fee of 10 Singapore dollars (approximately RMB 46) to the association. She believes that this is very necessary.