Macau, the other SAR

TurboJet Ferry tickets from Hong Kong to Macau

Jeff studied Portuguese for five futile semesters at Georgetown, but he was glad to finally use it in Macau.   During our first weekend here, we headed off on a TurboJet ferry for the 1-1/2 hour ride to Macau.

Hong Kong and Macau are the only two Special Administrative Regions (SARs) of the People's Republic of China (PRC).  Hong Kong was a British colony until the handover in 1997, while Macau was a Portuguese territory until 1999.  They operate under a "One China, Two Systems" principle, where both are autonomous territories that fall within the sovereignty of the PRC, but each maintains their own governments, police forces and legal, monetary, postal and immigration systems.  When traveling between Hong Kong, Macau and the PRC, one processes through full immigration and customs controls.  Whereas U.S. citizens need a visa to travel to the PRC, no visas are necessary to enter either Hong Kong or Macau.

Less than 40 miles southwest of Hong Kong, Macau is situated on a peninsula that is bordered by the Guangdong province of China and the South China Sea.  The economy is heavily dependent upon tourism and gambling.  Based on what we saw there, business is good.  There are multiple ferry services running from Hong Kong, Kowloon, Shenzhen and other cities with departures as often as every 15 minutes.  Perhaps it was due to the impending holiday week, but our ferries were quite full in both directions.

An older building reflecting the Portuguese architectural influences

At the ferry terminal in Macau, touts are waiting to pounce on passengers like us who disembark without telltale signs of excitement at the prospect of hitting the slots.  We maneuvered our way through the crowd and out into the parking lot at the front, where dozens of casino buses offered free rides to the center of the city.  We jumped on one bound for Casino Lisboa and soon found ourselves surrounded by the flashing and beeping of one-armed bandits and gaming tables that sound the same in any language.  We spent our day in Macau just wandering the streets with no particular plan.

Jeff & Carolyn in front of an aquarium
at the MGM Grand Casino in Macau

At one point, we decided it would be nice to eat Portuguese food for lunch.  Finding a suitable restaurant proved more challenging than we expected, so we stopped a couple to ask for help.  They turned out to be Portuguese and had lived in Macau for many years.  This was Jeff's big opportunity to practice his Portuguese.  They spent about an hour with us, amused and patiently showing us historic sites like the city hall and proudly pointing out Portuguese tiles and other architectural features.  They insistently walked us to all three of their favorite Portuguese restaurants.  Perhaps thankfully, they told us a prior commitment prevented them from joining us for lunch, but their recommendation proved a winner: we were the only non-Portuguese in the restaurant.

The Portuguese influence is evident in the building architecture, street pavers and large number of Catholic churches in Macau.  But the large, shiny casinos and shopping malls built by the Flamingo, Wynn, MGM Grand and others are starting to dwarf the beautiful old architecture.   Before we left, we wandered through a couple of the big casinos and even managed to lose 20 Macau dollars, which translates into about two and a half US bucks.  The contrast between the unique, Portuguese style streets of the older part of Macau and the new, shiny casinos that look the same no matter where you are in the world is one that we will remember.