Known for its free-market approach to stimulating economic growth, many praise the region’s embrace of minimal regulations for its current affluent state. That being said, such freedom comes at a cost: in terms of democracy, the island is ranked as “partly free” and some stipulate that had Singapore not been endowed with such a benevolent dictator, it would cease to achieve the prosperity it maintains today.

In a city of over 8 million people, it’s easy to feel lost, but it’s even easier to be blown away by its beauty.

This city-state is as scenic as it is vast: despite the island’s 710-square kilometer size, it boasts an impressive population of five million.