In the 1960s, Singapore gorged the soil from its tiny hills and ridges and used it to reclaim land. The island is virtually flat today, forcing the government to buy sand from Malaysia and Indonesia to continue its reclamation efforts. In the early stages of a land reclamation project, when the imported sand was sitting idle for some time, huge desert-like landscapes began to dominate the eastern and western coasts of Singapore. When these deserts started appearing in the 1960s, they took the place of the beaches that the locals used to frequent. To make do with what they have, Singaporeans would flock into these reclaimed spaces on the weekends to walk towards the new shoreline, in hope of reaching the beach that they once knew.