Photos and text by Joseph Levendusky
Eighteen months ago on a business trip to Hong Kong, with my work visa expiring, I needed to exit and re-enter Hong Kong as a tourist. I went to nearby Macau to spend a day.
Just an hour’s trip by catamaran ferry across the Pearl River Delta, Macau is a separate Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China and a city-state as is Hong Kong. A former Portuguese colony, it is imbued with a distinctive amalgam of Asian and Iberian influences. A passport is needed to enter and you will be greeted by signage in curious smatterings of Chinese, Portuguese and English.
The new Macau–the Las Vegas of Asia–is all about glitzy casinos and high-end shopping. Skip that. Walking the older streets of Macau will reveal a far richer, more rewarding cultural stew. There are enchanting examples of colonial architecture and graceful churches, some dating to the 16thcentury.
Macau’s signature attraction is the dramatic ruin of Saint Paul’s Church. The busy pedestrian streets leading to Saint Paul’s are crammed with food stalls with unfamiliar noshes on offer. Though St. Paul’s buzzes with tourist activity, you can escape to a quiet little Buddhist shrine just a hundred yards away.
Walk just a bit further and all the commotion fades away. You will be immersed in day to day life in living neighborhoods. There are modest avenues lined with aging modernist European apartment buildings and also alleyway neighborhoods that resemble the hutong of Beijing. There is an intriguing ethnic mélange. Christianity and Buddhism exist side by side. Europe and Asia are melded together. There are quaint churches from the colonial epoch as well as solemn incense scented temples.
The jewels in Macau’s crown are its gorgeous parks. I stumbled upon the Jardim Luís de Camões in the Santo Antonio neighborhood. The oldest park in Macau, it is dedicated to the memory of the revered Portuguese poet Luís de Camões who lived for a time in Macau. Built on a hillside, the park affords captivating views of the neighboring urban landscape. Rustic paths and small hilltop pagodas surrounded by lush sub-tropical plantings make the park a respite of calm and beauty. It is a rather different experience from any Western park.
In the nearby streets surrounding the Igreja de Santo Antóni de Lisboa, you will find in the late afternoon schoolboys kicking soccer balls, young people on scooters, workers walking home and families going about their lives. Duck into the markets, shops and bakeries–they are an experience in themselves.
As is the custom in Hong Kong, restaurants are often on floors above street level. Ground floor commercial space is deemed too valuable to squander on food service. If you fail to look up, you might think that you are destined to go hungry. Chain restaurants and fast food abound, but look for a traditional Portuguese white tablecloth bistro. You can enjoy old world European style and refuel on the spicy traditional dish of African Chicken. Wash it down with the intriguingly spiced Macau sangria.
A day, or several days, of leisurely wandering in old Macau is time quite well spent. Straying from the beaten tourist path is splendidly rewarded. This is one of a diminishing number of destinations that retain their cultural uniqueness and make for absorbing travel.
