Macau: Fisherman's Wharf

After going to Hong Kong on Monday for a day trip during Qingming Festival (Tomb Sweeping Day) and relaxing Tuesday in Shenzhen, two of my fellow teaching friends (Laila and Lindsay) and I went to Macau for a day trip on Wednesday. We all had to teach the following day on Thursday at our respective schools. None of us had been to Macau before.

The best way to get to Macau from Shenzhen is the hour-long ferry – approximately 200 kuai ($30 ) each way. I had been to the ferry terminal before, when I went to Hong Kong Island last year with Laila. You can also catch the ferry to go to Zhuhai as well as the Hong Kong International Airport. We caught the early morning ferry to Macau at around 9am.

Macau is one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China (Hong Kong is the other). Macau lies on the western side of the Pearl River Delta across from Hong Kong which is to the east, bordering Guangdong province to the north and facing the South China Sea to the east and south. Macau is located at the mouth of the Pearl River downstream from Guangzhou (Canton). Macau Peninsula was originally an island, but a connecting sandbar gradually turned into a narrow isthmus, thus changing Macau into a peninsula.

The territory's economy is heavily dependent on gambling and tourism, but also includes manufacturing. In fact, gambling revenue has made Macau the world's top casino market, surpassing Las Vegas.

Macau is a former Portuguese colony, and is both the first and last European colony in China. Portuguese traders first settled in Macau in the 16th century and subsequently administered the region until the handover in 1999. The Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration and the Basic Law of Macau stipulate that Macau operates with a high degree of autonomy until at least 2049, fifty years after the transfer.

Under the policy of "one country, two systems", the PRC's Central People's Government is responsible for the territory's defense and foreign affairs, while Macau maintains its own legal system, police force, monetary system, customs policy, and immigration policy; so like Hong Kong, you have to clear immigration.

The official languages are Chinese and Portuguese and the spoken languages are Cantonese, Portuguese, & Macanese. 95% of Macau's population is Chinese; another 2% is of Portuguese and/or mixed Chinese/Portuguese descent, an ethnic group often referred to as Macanese. In Macau, the unit of currency is the pataca.

After clearing immigration, we walked to Fisherman's Wharf which was located next to the Ferry Terminal. The Wharf is the first theme park in Macau and opened in 2006. The complex includes over 150 stores and restaurants in buildings built in the style of different world seaports such as Cape Town, Amsterdam and Venice, six rides, a slots hall, hotels, and a casino. Located next to Fisherman's Wharf is the Sands Macau, which was named after the hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and is the largest and the first U.S. owned casino in Macau.

The Wharf was pretty empty when we were there maybe due to the Qingming holiday. We saw a lot of neat places in Macau during our day-trip (future posts coming) and this area was my least favorite. I was not impressed. If I wanted to see places like this, I would just go to them in the States. But we walked the area just to check it out but a lot of the restaurants and shops were closed when we were there. None of us are gamblers so the gambling piece of Macau was not something we were attracted to. Thankfully, Laila and Lindsay have the same interests as I in that we were much more interested in seeing Macau's historical, heritage sights. Some pics below of the Wharf and area.