Hougang

Hougang is the pinyin version of Aū-káng, a Hokkien and Teochew name meaning "river end". In the past, the name connoted the area stretching from the fifth milestone junction of Yio Chu Kang Road and Sengkang Road to the seventh milestone confluence of Upper Serangoon Road and Tampines Road. (Above Error: The name Hougang stems from the Hokkien and Teochew word Au-Kang, which refers to the ‘river end’, as Hougang is located upstream or at the back of Sungei Serangoon. Many Singaporean Chinese residents in the town speak the Teochew language as many were formerly from a Teochew community at Kampong Punggol before being relocated to Hougang. This trend however undergoes constant shifts, with new residents moving in from other parts of Singapore. There was also a fishing port.

The area was once a large piece of Deserted land. Farming of pigs was also carried out by farmers. The last of these pig farmers were relocated by the late-1990s to prisons built in Hougang. Today, it is an HDB new town with over 40,000 housing units interspersed with pockets of private residential areas.

At Hougang Street 21, there was a well that is still identified as the tua jia ka well structure. This well identified the Teochew village of tua jia ka which means the "foot of a big well". In the past, the village was a popular place for food, street wayangs, itinerant Chinese medicine men and story tellers spinning yarns.