A former Portuguese colony an hour away, with baroque churches, egg tarts and more gambling revenue than Las Vegas.
Macau was Portuguese from 1557 until 1999, making it the first and last European colony in East Asia. It is now a Special Administrative Region of China, like Hong Kong, under its own version of one country, two systems until 2049.
It is about 65 kilometres west across the Pearl River estuary.
The historic centre
UNESCO-listed in 2005, and considerably more interesting than the casinos.
The Ruins of St Paul’s — the carved stone façade of the Church of Mater Dei, built 1602–1640 by Jesuits with Japanese Christian refugee craftsmen, and destroyed by fire in 1835. Only the front wall and the steps survive, and they are the emblem of Macau.
Senado Square, in wave-patterned Portuguese calçada paving, surrounded by pastel colonial buildings.
A-Ma Temple, from 1488 and the oldest in Macau — the name Macau probably derives from it.
Monte Fort, St Dominic’s Church, the Moorish Barracks, Guia Fortress with its lighthouse and chapel, and the Mandarin’s House.
The Macau Museum in Monte Fort is a good introduction.
The casinos
Macau’s gaming revenue overtook the Las Vegas Strip in 2006 and is now several times larger, making it the largest gambling centre in the world by a wide margin.
Cotai, on reclaimed land between Taipa and Coloane, is where the large integrated resorts are — the Venetian, the Parisian, Wynn Palace, City of Dreams. They are enormous, air-conditioned and free to walk through, and several run free shuttle buses from the ferry terminals and the border, which visitors use for transport regardless of whether they gamble.
Baccarat is the dominant game by a very long way.
Egg tarts
Pastéis de nata, brought by the Portuguese and adapted. Lord Stow’s Bakery in Coloane village is the famous one — founded by an English pharmacist, Andrew Stow, in 1989, using a recipe he worked out himself.
Also: Portuguese-Macanese food, a genuine creole cuisine — minchi (minced beef with potato and egg), African chicken, bacalhau, serradura. Riquexó and A Lorcha are the traditional names.
Almond cookies and jerky are sold in enormous quantities on Rua da Felicidade.
Getting there
Ferry from Sheung Wan (Hong Kong–Macau Ferry Terminal) or Kowloon (China Ferry Terminal), roughly hourly, about an hour. TurboJet and Cotai Water Jet are the operators.
Bus over the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge, opened in 2018 — 55 kilometres including an undersea tunnel, and around 45 minutes from the Hong Kong port at the airport. It is cheaper than the ferry.
Both are full immigration crossings. Passport required; most nationalities get 30 days visa-free.
Practicalities
Macau uses the pataca, but Hong Kong dollars are accepted everywhere at par — you will get change in patacas, which are hard to spend back in Hong Kong.
Portuguese is a co-official language and appears on every street sign; almost nobody speaks it.
Doable in a long day. Better as an overnight, since the historic centre and Coloane both deserve time.
