Macau% 853 / POP 566,375
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©Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd Macau% 853 / POP 566,375 Includes ¨ Why Go? Sights ....................... 537 Best known globally as the ‘Vegas of China’, the Macau Spe- Activities .................. 548 cial Administrative Region is indeed a mecca of gambling and glitz. But the city is so much more than that. A Portu- Tours ......................... 548 guese colony for more than 300 years, it is a city of blended Festivals & Events .... 548 cultures. Ancient Chinese temples sit on streets paved with Sleeping ................... 549 traditional Portuguese tiles. The sound of Cantonese fills Eating ....................... 550 the air on streets with Portuguese names. You can eat Chi- Drinking & Nightlife ... 552 nese congee for breakfast, enjoy a Portuguese lunch of caldo verde soup and bacalhau (cod) fritters, and dine on hybrid Entertainment .......... 553 Macanese fare such as minchi (ground beef or pork, often Shopping .................. 553 served over rice). The Macau Peninsula holds the old city centre, where co- lonial ruins sit next to arty new boutiques. Further south are the conjoined islands of Taipa, Cotai and Coloane. Taipa has Best Places to Eat gloriously preserved Macanese architecture, Cotai is home to the new megacasinos and Coloane is lined with colonial ¨ António (p551) villages and pretty beaches. ¨ Restaurante Fernando (p551) ¨ Clube Militar de Macau When to Go (p550) Macau ¨ Robuchon au Dôme (p550) °C/°F Te mp Rainfall inches/mm ¨ Lord Stow’s Bakery (p551) 40/104 12/300 30/86 20/68 10/50 8/200 0/32 Best Places to -10/14 4/100 Sleep -20/-4 -30/-22 ¨ Pousada de São Tiago -40/-40 0 (p549) J FDM A M J J A S O N ¨ Banyan Tree (p550) Mar–May Cele- Jun–Sep Days Oct–Feb Music ¨ Mandarin Oriental (p549) brate the arts, a in the shade of and grand prix ¨ Pousada de Mong Há sea goddess and temples and in a high-octane (p549) a dragon as mist dragon boats; run-up to Christ- hangs over the nights aglow with mas and New Year. ¨ 5Footway Inn (p549) harbour. fireworks. 537 History illiterate understand the Passion of Christ Portuguese galleons first visited southern and the lives of the saints. China to trade in the early 16th century, The church was designed by an Italian Jes- and in 1557, as a reward for clearing out pi- uit and completed by early Japanese Christian exiles and Chinese craftsmen in 1602. It was rates, they obtained a leasehold for Macau. abandoned after the expulsion of the Jesuits The first Portuguese governor of Macau was appointed in 1680, and as trade with China grew, so did Macau. However, after the Opi- CHINA 0 4 km 0 2 miles um Wars between the Chinese and the Brit- GU‡NGD±NG Border ish, and the subsequent establishment of Gate Sháoguƒn Hong Kong, Macau went into a long decline. GU‡NGD±NG In 1999, under the Sino–Portuguese Joint Lou Lim Gu†ngzhŸu Declaration, Macau was returned to China leoc and designated as a Special Administrative Church of Garden St Paul MACAU Kowloon Region (SAR). Like Hong Kong, the pact Guia Fortress ensures Macau a ‘high degree of autonomy’ & Guia Chapel HONG KONG in all matters (except defence and foreign M a Macau ca affairs) for 50 years. The handover, howev- B Sai Van rid u Peninsula er, did not change Macau socially and eco- Bridge – Friendship g T e a Bridge nomically as much as the termination of ip the gambling monopoly in 2001. Casinos a mushroomed, redefining the city’s skyline, Taipa Macau and tourists from mainland China surged, Island International Racetrack fattening up the city’s coffers. Taipa Airport Yet the revenue boost, coupled with gov- Venetian Village ernment policies (or the lack thereof), also CHINA Lotus Cotai led to income inequality and a labour short- GU‡NGD±NG Bridge Frontier Post age. Macau residents are also increasingly Coloane MACAU critical of their chief executive’s pro- Běijīng Island stance. In May 2014 thousands in the for- merly placid city took to the streets to pro- Coloane Village Alto de Restaurante SIGH Coloane Fernando test Chief Executive Fernando Chui, who (176m) was re-elected three months later. SOUTH ts CHINA SEA Language Cantonese and Portuguese are the official languages of Macau, though few people Macau Highlights actually speak Portuguese. English and 1 Taipa Village (p546) Dining on Mandarin are reasonably well understood, Portuguese fare and wandering the narrow though the former is harder to find here lanes of this charming colonialvillage. than in Hong Kong. 2 Venetian (p553) Wandering the baroque indoor canals of this mind- 1 Sights blowingly huge casino complex. 1 3 Ruins of the Church of St Paul Central Macau Peninsula (p537) Exploring the ethereal ruins of the oRuins of the Church of St Paul RUINS very symbol of Macau. (大三巴牌坊, Ruinas de Igreja de São Paulo; Map 4 Lou Lim Ieoc Garden (p545) Losing p540; Travessa de São Paulo; g8A, 17, 26, disem- yourself in maze-like spaces at Lou Lim bark at Luís de Camões Garden) F The most Ieoc Garden. treasured icon in Macau, the towering fa- 5 Guia Fortress & Guia Chapel (p543) cade and stairway are all that remain of Taking the cable car to handsome Guia Fort this early-17th-century Jesuit church. With and its gorgeous chapel. its statues, portals and engravings that ef- 6 Restaurante Fernando (p551) fectively make up a ‘sermon in stone’ and Indulging in a long lunch of garlicky clams a Biblia pauperum (Bible of the poor), the and crisp suckling pig at this beloved church was one of the greatest monuments beachside institution in Coloane. to Christianity in Asia, intended to help the .