On the North East Line, it lies between the Outram Park and Clarke Quay MRT stations and between Telok Ayer and Fort Canning MRT stations on the Downtown Line. It is directly below and serves the ethnic district of Chinatown. The construction of the station was considered an engineering achievement, due to the busy traffic on the roads above and a number of nearby historical buildings that had to be preserved during the construction. The section of track between Telok Ayer and this station is the shortest between any two stations on the MRT network; it takes around 35 to 40 seconds for a train to travel between the stations. The distance between Chinatown and the next station, Clarke Quay, is the shortest distance between two MRT stations in Singapore, a mere 360 metres. 