from hong kong i took a ferry to the world’s foremost gambling mecca, macau, for a day! macau was historically a portuguese colony and was recently returned to china. like hong kong, it is also a “special administrative region” with its own immigration policy, laws and currency. it is the world’s number one gambling city, with ten times more being spent there each day than in las vegas – most of the cash comes from mainland china. most of the older casinos are downtown, the most iconic of them being the grand lisboa, which is shaped like a sprouting flower. recently a huge area of land to the south of downtown has been reclaimed from the ocean, hugely increasing the jurisdiction’s small land area. this new space is being used to build the “cotai strip,” a modern gambling artery to rival or indeed eventually overshadow the las vegas strip. the casinos here are integrated resorts on a truly massive scale. integrated meaning that they are essentially cities in a building – you could live your life in one of these resorts and never get bored: hotels, gyms, restaurants, food courts, malls, wave pools, theme parks, cinemas, etc. the current largest, the galaxy, is the largest entertainment destination in the world, and awe-inspiringly houses the world’s largest chandelier in one of its lobbies. others include the venetian, which dwarfs the vegas venetian many times over.
the older area of macau has some interesting things to see as well. there is the façade of a church called st. paul’s. on it there are countless fascinating motifs and layers of meaning; for example a hard-to-find image of mary crushing a seven-headed chinese dragon under her foot. a nearby fort provides nice views over the city and has an interesting little museum highlighting the jurisdiction’s history. portuguese egg custard tarts prevent hypoglycemia, as do herb-flavored juice concoctions, the varieties of which are endless.
