Macau
Discover Macau
Macau (also spelled Macao, 澳門, Oumún in Cantonese) is a former Portuguese colony, a world-renowned gambling destination, and one of the world's most densely populated places, with a population of 667,000 people (2016) in an area half the size of Manhattan Island. Returned to Chinese rule in 1999, it is now a semi-autonomous "Special Administrative Region", a status it shares with nearby Hong Kong. Macau is best known as a major destination for gambling. This goes back to colonial times, when Hong Kong had tight limits on gambling—it was legal only at the horse racing track twice a week—but Macau had casinos. Today, Macau is the only part of China where casinos are legal under the auspices of the "One Country, Two Systems" arrangement. Macau overtook Las Vegas as the world's highest revenue gambling destination around 2008 and now has a substantial lead; several of the major Las Vegas-based casinos have built branches in Macau to cash in on the trend.
Famous Beaches
Taste of Macau...
Macau is famous for excellent restaurants, unique cuisine and mellow bars. Above all, the city is famous for two cuisines: Portuguese and Macanese. Portuguese food (cozinha portuguesa), brought in by its Portuguese colonizers, is hearty, salty, straightforward fare. While many restaurants claim to serve the stuff, fully authentic fare is mostly limited to a few high-end restaurants, especially the cluster at the southwestern tip of the Peninsula. Typical Portuguese dishes include: Macanese food (comida de Macau) was created when Portuguese and Chinese influences were mixed together with spices brought from Africa, India and Southeast Asia by traders, and many restaurants advertising "Portuguese" food in fact serve up mostly Macanese dishes. Seafood and barbecue specialist Fernando's on Coloane's Hac Sa Beach is probably the best-known Macanese restaurant. All that said, the food of choice in Macau is still pure Cantonese, and a few aficionados even claim that the dim sum and seafood here beat Hong Kong. The streets of central Macau are littered with simple eateries offering rice and noodle dishes for under MOP$30 (although menus are often only in Chinese), while every casino hotel worth its salt has a fancy Cantonese seafood restaurant where you can blow away your gambling winnings on abalone and shark's fin soup.
Culture & Religion
Culture
The local culture in Macau is primarily based on traditional Chinese culture, particularly that of Guangdong province, due to its history as part of that region. That said, the Portuguese have also left their mark on the local culture, perhaps most visible in its cuisine. As Macau was spared from the excesses of the Cultural Revolution, locals in Macau have retained many aspects of traditional Chinese culture that have been lost on the mainland. A Macao Narrative (ISBN 0195920708) by Austin Coates. Great introduction to Macau's colourful history. You can buy this book at the museum in the Fortaleza do Monte which overlooks the Ruins of St. Paul. Macau's official languages are Cantonese and Portuguese. Cantonese is the main language spoken in Macau. The variant of Cantonese spoken in Macau is similar to that of Hong Kong and Guangzhou, but has some unique local slang. Nevertheless, if you are fluent in standard Cantonese, this should not pose too much of a challenge.
Religion
Contemporary Macau is largely secular in daily life, with religion playing almost no role in people's work or political affiliations. That said, most of the ethnic Chinese majority still follows a mix of Buddhism and traditional Chinese folk religions to some extent. When visiting Chinese temples, basic respect should be shown. For instance, you should not point at the statues of deities using your index finger as it is considered to be very rude; use your thumb or an up-facing open palm instead. However, taking photos is usually allowed and you don't need to ask for permission as long as there isn't a no-photography sign posted. As a legacy of Portuguese rule, Roman Catholicism is practised by a significant minority, including most of the ethnic Macanese community, and there are numerous churches catering to them. The Roman Catholic church is allowed to operate freely in Macau.
A Rich Past
Explore the historical roots that shaped Macau into what it is today.
In the 16th century, China gave Portugal the right to settle in Macau in exchange for clearing the area of pirates. The city was formally colonized in 1887 after escalating clashes between China and Portugal, as the First Opium War exposed Qing Dynasty's weakness to European powers. Macau was the first European settlement in the Far East. It was also the last; pursuant to an agreement signed by China and Portugal, Macau became a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China on 20 December 1999, ending over 400 years of Portuguese administration. Like any port city, Macau has always had brothels and other places of ill-repute catering to sailors. Like many other places, it has also had organised crime; in the 1990s there were gang wars sometimes involving automatic weapons in the streets, while the Portuguese administration largely left the territory to its own devices and did little to combat the violence. However, after the 1999 Chinese takeover, the gangs were firmly crushed and today, Macau is no more dangerous than any other major tourist destination. China uses the slogan "one country, two systems" for relations between the central government and the two SARs, Hong Kong and Macau. Both are part of China, and neither can have an independent foreign policy or military force, but each has it own laws and legislative assembly and issues its own visas and currency....
Location & Landscape
Besides the city (Macau/Peninsula), Macau includes the islands of Taipa and Coloane, which are connected to the peninsula by bridges and to each other by a causeway. The area between the two islands has been reclaimed from the sea and built up into the Cotai Strip; that has become an area of intense development with many new casinos and hotels. The mainland Chinese city of Zhuhai borders Macau to the north and west, and the border crossing carries heavy two-way vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The Zhuhai Special Economic Zone extends south to Hengqin Island, an area west of Taipa, Cotai and Coloane; the Lotus Bridge from Cotai connects to that area. There is significant movement by the local population of Zhuhai and Macau across the border, making the two feel like twin cities. Macau is subtropical with hot summers and mild winters. Although winter is generally mild, there are occasional cold fronts which could make temperatures drop 10°C (18°F) in a day.
Essential Information
Getting There
Multiple OptionsFor many years, the usual way to get to Macau was to fly into Hong Kong and take a ferry across to Macau. Today, Macau is becoming a low-cost airline hub, and some travellers are now arriving at Macau to later go to Hong Kong. Macau has a separate immigration regime from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. All travellers from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and foreign countries have to go through immigration and customs checks on arrival in Macau. As leaving mainland China for Macau is considered to be leaving China, if you wish to re-enter mainland China after visiting Macau, you will need a multiple-entry Chinese visa. Holders of a Hong Kong permanent identity card or a re-entry permit can enter Macau visa-free for up to 1 year without having to present their passport. Holders of a Hong Kong non-permanent identity card can enter Macau visa-free for up to 30 days and must present their passport....
Getting Around & Staying
Getting Around
Unlike in mainland China, Google Maps is not blocked and can be used in Macau. Owing to privacy concerns, Macau's street views in Google Maps have not been updated since they were taken in 2008, so it's very outdated. This is arguably the best way to get around the Macau Peninsula, which is small, compact and full of things to discover. Many roads are also one way so there is quite a chance that it won't be slower than to take road transport which may need to make a long loop to reach the destination. Most streets have a pedestrian sidewalk making walking easy, although you will have to fight the crowds going in all directions. Cars are more mindful of pedestrians than in mainland China, but traffic rules are still not very well adhered to. Moreover, during the annual Grand Prix during October to November, barriers are installed on the racetracks, which impair pedestrian visibility significantly.
Where to Stay
The bulk of Macau's hotels are on the Peninsula, although there are also many options — including high-end ones — on Taipa and, increasingly, the Cotai Strip, which is challenging the Peninsula to become Macau's premier casino area. Coloane has fewer and much quieter options, but among them is the beachside Pousada de Coloane. Hotel rates are most expensive on Friday and Saturday nights, because demand is higher with tourists coming to Macau to gamble over the weekend. Try to make a booking through a travel agent, even if for the same day, as the rates can be substantially lower than walk-in rates. If you are coming from Hong Kong, book through an agent at the Shun Tak ferry pier for the best deals. Getting a package deal including return ferry tickets gives you the best price. When booking your room, you will need to show your landing slip issued at the border.
Money & Budget
The currency of Macau is the pataca (ISO code: MOP), which is divided into 100 avos, though due to Hong Kong influence on Macau education, they may also be referred as "dollar" and "cent". Prices are shown as MOP$10, for example (10 patacas). Alternatively merchants can also show "$" without any other prefixes to mean patacas. Macanese coins come in denominations of 10-, 20 and 50 avos, 1-, 2-, 5 and 10 patacas. Macanese banknotes, similar to their Hong Kong counterparts, are issued by the commercial banks (Banco Nacional Ultramarino and the Banco da China). They come in denominations of 10-, 20-, 50-, 100-, 500 and 1,000 patacas. The pataca is pegged to the Hong Kong dollar (HKD / HK$) at 1.03 patacas to 1 dollar.
Language & Talk
Macau's official languages are Cantonese and Portuguese. Cantonese is the main language spoken in Macau. The variant of Cantonese spoken in Macau is similar to that of Hong Kong and Guangzhou, but has some unique local slang. Nevertheless, if you are fluent in standard Cantonese, this should not pose too much of a challenge. News broadcasts will be in standard Cantonese. Mandarin is becoming more widely spoken, having been compulsory in all government schools since the handover, and is the second most useful language in the territory after Cantonese — most locals are able to comprehend it to some degree, and all government offices are able to provide services in Mandarin.
Safety Information
Safety Overview
Similar to Portugal and other ex-Portuguese colonies, Macau has 2 distinct police forces, namely the Public Security Police Force (Chinese: 治安警察局/治安警, Portuguese: Corpo de Polícia de Segurança Pública, CPSP) and Judiciary Police (Chinese: 司法警察局/司警, Portuguese: Polícia Judiciária, PJ). In rare major operations, you may also observe plainclothes agents from the Unified Police Service (Chinese: 警察總局, Portuguese: Serviços de Polícia Unitários), the agency overseeing the previous two agencies. The Customs Service (Chinese: 海關, Portuguese: Serviços de Alfândega) patrols the territorial sea of Macau and performs other customs duties. The Public Security Police is tasked with crime prevention and deterrence, traffic control, and immigration duties. Public Security Police officers wear light blue uniforms, and have badges on their uniform. Their police vehicles are painted in dark-blue.