Macau

"Where Asia Plays!"

Why not do as so many Hong Kongers and take a day out to visit their neighbour Macau? It is right next door, across the Pearl River delta. All it takes to get here is a convenient one hour ferry ride from the middle of Hong Kong.

Similarly to the history of Hong Kong, Macau is an old colony that was ceeded to the Portuguese. And much like Hong Kong, it was handed back to the People's Republic in 1999, but is still run under a separate administration. Also, the climate here is the same as the climate in Hong Kong. But the similarities pretty much end there.

Some people draw a hasty conclusion that the two old colonies should be a lot alike, but that is a mistake. With only about a half million inhabitants, compared to the seven million people living in Hong Kong, Macau is much smaller in size and restricted in scope.

They do not have the wide variety of business life of Hong Kong, and they are certainly no financial centre. Instead, they have become extremely focused on the gambling and entertainment industries to become something of an Asian Las Vegas.

A few of Macau's casinos: The Grand Lisboa, the Wynn Macau and MGM Macau

Macau income has become heavily reliant on tourism, and considering the quaint colonial areas downtown it is not hard to see why. This place is definitely worth a visit, and as a rule of thumb I would suggest that anyone who is spending three full days or more in Hong Kong should make a day trip to Macau. It's so easy and you can go back home whenever you feel done with it! On the other hand, this town is quite small so if you aren't into gambling there's probably no need to stay the night here.

The Monte Carlo of the Orient

Gambling is very restricted in Hong Kong and mainland China. Nevertheless, Chinese people LOVE to gamble, which explains why Macau benefits from a steady stream of Hong Kong and mainland visitors who travel here to try their luck at one of the 36 casinos, including the world's largest, the Venetian Macao. In fact, the gambling industry collects more revenues than Las Vegas and represents over 40% of the Macau's GDP.

Among establishments competiting for all this money are sister casinos of Vegas giants like the Sands, Wynn, and MGM Grand. But the most famous might be the old Casino Lisboa. Unsurprisingly, they also serve as hotels. Many of these are located on the Cotai strip, an area of reclaimed land between the islands of Taipa and Coloane, which is really big relative to the total size of the city.

The city also attracts visitors through the many concerts that are held here. As Hong Kong lacks big arenas, global music stars will often make a tour stop here, knowing that the Hong Kong fans can easily make the quick trip across the river to see the show. Of course, if you check who's playing during your trip, you might do the same! Like Vegas, the casinos also have a lot of their own exclusive shows.

Historic legacy

To someone like me, who's not really interested in casinos, the best part of Macau is definitely the fact that it has preserved some of its old colonial past. Unlike Hong Kong, where just about all the old has been forced to make way for the new, downtown Macau consists of super cute cobblestone streets with special patterns in them. Particularly, there is the central Senado Square which is surrounded by colonial style buildings. This area, called Sao Lourenco, is the most attractive and has the biggest amount of tourists.

The fact that Macau has such a small surface area and many tourists means it can get fairly crowded even though the native population is limited. But this is mostly on the main drags. Make sure to go exploring around the tourist area and you will find a bunch of petite restaurants tucked away up the quiet little side streets.

The front is all that's left of St. Paul's Cathedral in Macau, built in 1602

Make sure not to miss the most famous landmark and tourist attraction, the 400 year old remnants of St. Paul's Cathedral, which was once the largest Catholic church in Asia.

Unfortunately most of it was destroyed in a typhoon in 1835, but the ancient façade remains and has become a popular photo op.

Next to the former cathedral is the old hilltop fort which is also worth a visit with a pretty good view and a historical museum.

The ferry

From Hong Kong the easiest way to get here is through the Macau Ferry Terminal below Sheung Wan, where ferries leave every 15 minutes all day, landing you at the other side of the Pearl River about an hour later. Naturally, there are also ferries going back to Hong Kong at a similar interval. You don't really need to check the schedule ahead of time unless you intend to travel later at night when the service frequency is understandably lower.

If for any reason you should want to get to or from Macau by other means, they certainly exist. Although nothing compared to Hong Kong, there is an international airport in Taipa. Also like Hong Kong, there are busy border crossings into mainland China. Long-distance bus lines from here can get you to other Guangdong cities like Guangzhou.

Some practicalities

The rules for entry are similar to the Hong Kong visa rules, which means that most tourists do not need a visa to come here, especially among those who didn't need a visa to enter Hong Kong.

Macau also has its own currency, the pataca. But the pataca is conveniently valued the same as the Hong Kong dollar, and because of the massive numbers of visitors pretty much everyone will accept your HKD instead on a one to one basis, they even try to give you change in HKD if they can! So there is really no need to buy currency before you travel.