Accomplishing a world record is no mean feat. It requires the individual or team to be more talented, creative, courageous, or determined than anyone else on the planet. That said, we ought to be proud that Singapore holds several world records ourselves – even if some might be unexpected. Here are some of notable Guinness World Records held by Singapore:
1. The Flower Dome located at Gardens by the Bay is the world’s largest glass greenhouse, measuring a total of 1.28ha.
2. Singapore has the world’s fastest internet connection at 60.39mpbs.
3. The Kim Chuan Depot is the world’s largest underground depot. It’s 800m in length, 160m in width, and 23m in height.
4. The Float at Marina Bay is the world’s largest floating platform used for sporting events
5. Mr Goh Chok Tong was the world’s highest-paid prime minister in August 2000. His annual salary was recorded as $1.94 million.
6. The Sports Hub national stadium is the world’s largest true (self-supporting) dome at 312m wide.
7. The 280m long Helix Bridge at Marina Bay is the world’s largest double-helix structure bridge.
8. The Night Safari, part of the Mandai Wildlife Reserve, is the world’s first zoo that opens only at night.
9. The world’s largest collection of tortoises and turtles is held by Mr Danny Tan, set on 16th June 2005. The number achieved was 3,456 and included over 1,000 live specimens, all of which can be seen at The Live Turtle and Tortoise Museum.
10. The world’s first bioluminescent flower was developed by Prof. Chia Tet Fatt from the National Institute of Education on 1st December 1999. He used a white-petalled orchid known as Dendrobium White Fairy #5 and combined it with the luciferase gene from fireflies. The resulting specimen emitted a greenish-white light for up to 5 hours.
11. The longest scuba submergence in a controlled environment was achieved by Mr Khoo Swee Chiow. Using air bell rests, he spent 220 hours underwater, from 16th-25th December 2005.
Image credit: Flickr
12. The world’s largest 3D balloon sculpture was created by balloon artist Ms Lily Tan. She led her team of 50 people from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore to create a robot named Sentinel, made with 79,854 balloons. The balloon sculpture took 42 hours to complete, and measured 23.3m in length, 19m in width, and 11.5m in height.
13. The world’s longest beer bottle bar slide was set by Mr Jeffrey Ng on 21st February 2013, at Timbre @ The Arts House, with a distance of 14m, 10.4cm. The event was organised by Guinness Singapore and Asia Pacific Breweries Singapore to mark the launch of their new Guinness Draught in a Bottle.
14. The world’s most backward somersaults in a wind tunnel in under 1 minute were done by Ms Kyra Poh at iFly Singapore, Sentosa. She completed a total of 68 backward somersaults.
Our colleague, not Ms. Lye Yu Xuan, having a go at iFly.
15. The world’s most forward and backward somersaults in a wind tunnel in under 1 minute were done by Ms Lye Yu Xuan at iFly Singapore, Sentosa. She completed a total of 33 somersaults.
16. The world’s longest duration of spinning a fidget spinner on 1 finger is 25 minutes and 43.21 seconds, by Mr William Lee on 1st May 2019.
17. The world’s largest goshenite – which is a type of colourless gem – is owned by Mr.Wing Kiat Cheong and weighs 1.3kg.
A jeremejevite for reference.
Image credit: Rodney Moore via Flickr
18. The world’s largest cut jeremejevite is owned by Mr Joseph Fam and is 45.61 carats.
19. The world’s fastest 100m solving a rotating puzzle cube was done in 13.63 seconds by Mr Daryl Tan Hong An, on 19th June 2021.
20. The world’s most cane reveal illusions in 1 minute was set by S. Chandran on 15th June 2014. He unveiled 37 canes at an event happening at the Singapore Expo Drive.
21. The world’s most ONE Championship successful title defences by a female fighter was achieved by Ms Angela Lee, with a total of 4 title defences.
Image credit: Guinness World Records
22. The world’s largest curry was made by the Indian Chefs and Culinary Association on 1st August 2015. It was part of the yearly Suvai event and weighed a total of 15,340kg.
23. The world’s most expensive coffee pod is sold by Medano Coffee Pte Ltd as of 2017 – sold at S$77.60 in a set of 5.
Image credit: Resorts World Sentosa
24. The world’s largest indoor light display was done by Universal Studios Singapore at Resorts World Sentosa on 17th November 2016. This was part of the Christmas event and there were 824,961 light bulbs involved.
25. The world’s largest group of people applying false eyelashes happened at The Ground Theatre @ SCAPE with a total of 324 people. The event was hosted by Mandom Corp. Pte Ltd and happened on 20th September 2014.
PM Lee was also part of the affair.
Image credit: Singapore Book of Records
26. The world’s largest group of people wearing balloon hats happened on 31st December 2014 and involved 5,911 people. This was organised by Ang Mo Kio GRC and Sengkang West SMC with the People’s Association Balloon Sculpting Interest Groups as part of Singapore’s 50th birthday celebration.
27. The world’s largest gathering of people dressed as storybook characters happened on 6th March 2014 and involved 1,560 people. The event was done by Tanglin Trust School.
28. The world’s longest non-stop commercial flight happened on 28th June 2004. The Singapore Airlines Airbus A340-500 aircraft flew around 16,600km from Singapore to New York, USA in 18 hours.
29. The world’s largest reunion of people born at the same hospital involved 2,241 people on 16th October 2016, and they were all from KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
30. The world’s largest grommet sling was made by Franklin Offshore International Pte Ltd in June 2003. It measured 110m long, 192mm in diameter, and weighed a total of 3,070,000kg.
31. The world’s most valuable whisky collection is owned by The Grande Whisky Museum and has a total value of $128,630,196.
32. The world’s longest stringed instrument is the Earth Harp, standing at 291.71m tall. It was made by William Close and The Event Company Staging Connections Ptd Ltd on 25th October 2014.
33. The world’s largest donation can was 11.7912m tall and 7.9624m wide, made by Nanyang Technological University’s Student’s Union and YES 933 on 10th July 1998.
Image credit: Singapore Book of Records
34. The world’s largest serving of fish heads was served by The Indian Restaurants Association on 14th July 2012. They served a total of 2,012 fish heads, as part of the Food Festival and Seafood Mela.
35. The world’s largest game of pass the parcel was played by 3,918 students from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) on 28th February 1998. They removed 2,200 wrappers from a parcel measuring 1.5 m x 1.5 m x 0.5 m over 2.5 hours.
Image credit: Singapore Book of Records
36. The world’s longest body percussion chain was done by Pasir Ris Crest Secondary School on 6th March 2015, with 1,180 students and staff in total.
37. The world’s first commercial vertical farm was built by Sky Greens Farms in October 2012.
38. The world’s largest online video chain of people passing and using a thermometer was done by Terumo Asia Pacific, with 540 participants. This was done on 12th August 2021 as part of the company’s 100th anniversary.
Image credit: Singapore Book of Records
39. The world’s largest number of people tying their shoes simultaneously involved 467 people on 12th October 2018. This was organised by Victor Bay and the PAP Community Foundation at Buona Vista Community Club.
40. The world’s largest game of musical chairs was played by Anglo-Chinese School (ACS) on 5th August 1989. 8,238 participants took part over 3.5 hours, and the winner was Mr. Xu Chong Wei.
Image credit: Singapore Book of Records
41. The world’s longest satay was created by the Kopitiam Group on 21st July 2007, at Lau Pa Sat. Measuring 140.02m, the satay was made with 150kg of chicken, and marinated with cumin, coriander, fennel, ginger, turmeric, lemongrass, onion, sugar, and salt. 150 staff grilled it over a charcoal fire.
42. The world’s smallest working gears were developed by researchers at A*STAR Institute of Materials Research and Engineering on 1st January 2009. The gears are molecular-sized and can be fully controlled to rotate clockwise or anti-clockwise by nudging with the probe of a Scanning Tunnelling Microscope.
Image credit: Kepcorp
43. The world’s longest chain of helmets was achieved by Keppel Offshore & Marine Limited, on 21st October 2007 at Siloso Beach, Sentosa. It consisted of 18,000 safety helmets, which measured a total length of 5,664m.
Image credit: Sutton Motorsport
44. The world’s first Formula One night race was held on 28th September 2008, at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. Fernando Alonso from Spain drove for Renault and won the race, although later investigations uncovered cheating and the event was dubbed ‘Crashgate’.
45. The most games of Scrabble played simultaneously was organised by Northland Secondary School, Mattel SouthEast Asia Pte Ltd, and Schools Scrabble Club on 14th March 2006. The record set was 521 simultaneous Scrabble games, played by 1,042 participants from 65 secondary schools and organisations.
46. The world’s largest limbo dance was organised by Global EduHub Pte Ltd on 1st October 2011, to raise money for the Children’s Cancer Foundation. Held at ITE College West, 1,208 participants helped raise $5,000.
And there you have it – all the Guinness World Records accomplished by our fellow pals from Singapore. If this inspires you to break a world record too, we say go for it. See you in the news soon.
More fun things about Singapore:
Cover image adapted from: Singapore Book of Records
First published on 17th February 2013 by Ivan Teh. Last updated by Joycelyn Yeow on 13th July 2023.
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