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 is 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.
