Holy Macau!

Today I took a ferry trip from Hong Kong to Macau. Macau was colonized by the Portuguese in the 1600s and the returned to China in 1999. The main industry on Macau is gambling (and tourism, from gamblers obviously!). There are casinos everywhere! Apparently Macau brings in 4 times as much a year as Las Vegas!!! But aside from the casinos, Macau is pretty interesting. There's a mix of Portuguese buildings and the modern skyscrapers and Buddhist temples and Chinese structures.


Taking the ferry over from Hong Kong was pretty easy - only an hour ride from the last MTR stop on the blue line (I can't remember the names of the lines, but I remember the colors!).

I was surprised by how many people were going to Macau. Ferries leave basically every 10 minutes and there are two ferry services (at least!). It was like a zoo, people everywhere! But the ferry is pretty comfortable and then from the ferry station in Macau you can walk to the old Macau square in about 30 minutes.

I walked everywhere and even took a peek in one of the casinos - the Grand Lisboa. Pretty impressive. But I had no idea what was going on! Haha!! I also saw the ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral. Only the front facade remains, but it's unique in that it has both Jesuit/Catholic design and Chinese sculpting. Right next to St. Paul's is the old fortress and you can look out and see a lot of the city, the mountains and the ocean!