Macau: Still There, Still Mysterious

Story and photography by
Nancy & Eric Anderson 

 

Once the 450,000 folk who lived in Macau had what their busy neighbors in Hong Kong didn't: life at a slow pace. Not now -- Macau International Airport opened in 1995 and Portugal handed Macau back to China in 1999 -- but there's still a sense of adventure visiting this mysterious peninsula, a mere 2.5 miles long, that juts out from the coastline of mainland China. Some might consider mysterious means dangerous but America's terrible 9/11 showed us no spot in the world is truly safe today and if we seek to visit new places we should do so or the terrorists have won.

The common port of entry for Macau is still Hong Kong, 40 miles to the east , 55 minutes away by high speed ferries that run night and day. Macau's total area -- including the islands -- is less than ten square miles. It's so small one of the great trading cities of the world can be explored in a day. And it was great. Says Macau enthusiast Brian Cuthbertson, " Macau, founded in 1557, was the midwife for Hong Kong. And when it first ruled the Asian trade world, Singapore and Hong Kong were insignificant fishing villages."

Macau's history is all there, showing what life was like in those days of the East India Company when the major maritime powers of Europe put their mark on faraway places with strange sounding names.

Macau's leading landmark, however, is a ruin. The Church of St. Paul, conceived by the Jesuits early in the 16th century and the oldest Christian religious building in Asia, had stood for more than 200 years until it caught fire during a typhoon in 1835. Now only the impressive façade remains. Beside it stands the old Citadel of Sao Paulo de Monte, built in 1626 by the same Jesuits, their cannons still guarding the harbor.

Macau is a walking city and the Macau Government Tourist office has excellent publications to help. Attractions vary from the Penha Chapel, founded in 1622 by the crew and passengers of a ship that had narrowly escaped destruction, to the old Protestant Cemetery which poignantly reveals how young were those dying in search of glory and adventure in the Far East. Beside the graveyard stands the Camoes Museum, built as a private residence about 1770 and now an art museum. To the south is the Goddess A-Ma Temple, the oldest Chinese temple in the city and standing in the courtyard is a huge rock with a carving of the Chinese junk that once brought the goddess to safety. To the north lies the Barrier Gate -- the portal to China -- erected in 1870. Tours to China ranging from day trips to excursions of several days are easily arranged through the concierge at most hotels.

The hotels are quite varied for so small a place. The Mandarin Oriental, within walking distance of the Macau ferry and on the sea wall of the Outer Harbor is where history was made in April 1937. Then a Pan Am clipper splashed down to mark the first air service between America's West Coast and China. A smaller hotel? In the older days you could choose hotels like the Hotel Bella Vista once a glorious colonial style hotel, but now the residence of the Portuguese consul. Or like the Hotel Pousada de Sao Tiago built in a fortress dating back to 1629 but it may be, should be, may be undergoing its long-overdue renovations for today’s visitors. Something bigger? How about the Hotel Lisboa, Macau's modest attempt to mimic Las Vegas? It even has a Crazy Paris Show put on by an enthusiastic group of performers that’s rather fun though it’s watched by the mostly Japanese guests with their strange inscrutable response. And across the 1.6-mile-long bridge completed in 1974, on the island of Taipa, sprawls the Hyatt Regency and its Island Resort health spa, fairly new properties yet already getting mixed reviews.

Macau is unique and easy to visit. And visit it you should because it's still a great safety valve from the frantic pace of Hong Kong -- and its cuisine, architecture and life style are quite different from the rest of the Orient.