My Life in China

This weekend I went to Macau, a city which is along with Hong Kong a SAR (special administrative region) of China, it was a Portuguese settlement until it was transferred back to China in 1999, but it will not be until 2049 that it will fully belong to mainland China. Macau has a very interesting history, more of which you can read here. Macau is interesting because in only a few years it has become the Las Vegas of the east, and it has actually long passed Las Vegas in amount of money spent in the casinos! However, I didn’t go there to gamble, but to see the mix of Portuguese and Chinese culture and architecture.

 

View of Macau from Penha hill.

 

It takes roughly two hours on a bus from Guangzhou to Zhuhai, which is the border city and where you have to pass the two custom controls, one going out of China and one entering Macau. Customs took me about 1 ½ hours. Straight out of the customs building there are several casino shuttle buses that will take you to their casino for free. Not knowing exactly where I wanted to go I jumped on going to Sand’s. Arriving there I was greeted by an expensive looking car park, with massive chandeliers in the ceiling!

 

My future garage?

 

Close by is the Fisherman’s wharf which looks more like a theme park than anything else with its Roman amphitheatre and Aladdin’s cave.. The remainder of the day I spent wandering around the city, passing by the famous Grand Lisboa building and numerous small churches.

 

I didn't know the Romans ever settled in China!

And the Arabs settled right next door to the Romans, fascinating!

 

The Grand Lisboa, certainly an interesting structure.



A cosy square with some of that old colonial Portuguese charm.



All the old buildings look really new.. Hmm...



The famous Ruins of St. Paul's church.



A cannon at the Monte Forte is strategically placed for taking out the Grand Lisboa if it poses any threat.



The north side of Macau.



Sun is setting over Macau.

At 8pm I was to meet up with my Couchsurfer host, Dan and at his place I got to try chicken feet for dinner! They look gross but they weren’t that bad actually, after the chicken feet the Tequila bottle made an entry and the rest of the night was filled with tequila shots and lots of laughs.

 

Grand Lisboa at night.

 

Eating chicken feet!

 

The day after Dan took me on a tour on Taipa which is the island south of Macau. On Taipa one will find enormous casino buildings such as The Venetian (fourth largest building in the world), the Hard Rock casino and “The city of Dreams” casino. I think these buildings and their interior looks so surreal that it’s hard to consider it real because of all its luxury fakeness but it’s definitely a great experience seeing it all!

 

Me and Dan outside the Hard Rock casino.

 

Inside the Venetian, which has the canal's inside and a permanent blue sky!

 

Even the Gondolas are here!

 

After the casino tour Dan took me to the Hac Sac beach where we planned to have lunch but the famous restaurant Fernando’s wasn’t open so we had to settle for a few egg tarts by the beach. Since I had a dinner and karaoke night waiting for me in Guangzhou I left Macau around 2pm and I’m looking forward to returning with Rebecka and show her around.