Dream City
Once a religious capital for Jesuit missionaries, Macau’s dazzling casinos are the new cathedrals of worship, writes Christina Pfeiffer.
It’s the place to be seen in Macau: a dazzling hotspot of gaming tables and poker machines, luxury hotels, sleek bars and top-class restaurants.
The newest casino in town, the just-opened City of Dreams, is located along the Cotai Strip between Coloane and Taipa Islands. City of Dreams is a punters paradise, where 40,000 square metres of casino floor holds around 520 gaming tables and 1,350 gaming machines. And it has an Australian connection: James Packer’s Crown Limited is a co-owner with Lawrence Ho, the son of Macau casino veteran Stanley Ho.
The former Portuguese colony is rapidly becoming the Las Vegas of Asia. And the big guns – Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts and MGM Mirage – are here to compete for slices of the pie. As Macau is the only place in China with legalised casinos, millions of Chinese flock to this enclave to indulge.
A few years ago, newly opened casino The Sands Macau had no glitzy magic shows or large-scale floor shows. Even so, you had to elbow your way through the crowd to get a seat at the gaming tables.
City of Dreams offers much more in the way of entertainment, dining and accommodation. You can stay in one of two hotels: the funky music-inspired Hard Rock Hotel, decked out with music memorabilia, or the sophisticated and gleaming Crown Towers. A third hotel, the 800-room Grand Hyatt Macau, is just completed.
There’s a futuristic audio-visual multimedia extravaganza, Dragon’s Treasure, in a dome-shaped theatre known as The Bubble. The free, 10-minute show combines high-definition video content, a sweeping musical score, more than 29,000 theatrical LED lights and other sensory effects to create a space-age audiovisual experience. Next year will see the opening of a brand-new, water-themed Dragone extravaganza, produced by the company responsible for Las Vegas shows Le Rêve and, Céline Dion’s A New Day, and nine Cirque du Soleil shows including Quidam and Saltimbanco.
Another Cirque du Soleil show is drawing crowds with dazzling acrobatics and light effects: Zaia is playing at The Venetian Macau, a Venice-inspired gambling Mecca that opened in August 2007. Within the first six months, 10 million people came to tempt luck at The Venetian.
Shopping along the Cotai Strip is an elegant affair. The Grand Canal Shoppes at The Venetian is a browser’s paradise of 350 luxury shops. Entertainers wander the streets and tired shoppers can get off their feet riding gondolas. At the Shoppes at Four Seasons, in-house image consultants are at hand to offer wardrobe advice, mix-and-match hints, colour analysis and personality-brand match analysis.
The developer of the Cotai Strip, Las Vegas Sands Corporation, has plans for more casinos and hotels: 20,000 guest rooms, 14 hotels, more than 550,000 square metres of meeting and retail space and 25,000 seats for live, world-class entertainment, to be exact. You will be able to walk from one casino resort to the next through interconnected walkways.
While dreams of transforming Macau into another Las Vegas might be this century’s big project, Macau is no stranger to change. More than 450 years ago, Portuguese traders sailed across the seas, gambling that they would make a fortune by trading with the Chinese. They were followed by Jesuit missionaries, who made Macau a religious centre in Asia. Macau’s Portuguese past has left the city with an east-meets-west vibe and a legacy of centuries-old, European-style buildings, plazas and churches. Drive along the tree-lined Rua da Praia Grande or stroll the Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro and you’ll see a pleasing mix of Chinese and Mediterranean architecture. Grey cobblestone streets are lined with pastel-hued, European-style townhouses, while Chinese temples line streets with Portuguese names. One temple not to be missed is the city’s famous A-Ma Temple, built by fishermen in the 16th century in honour of the seafarers’ goddess.
Many of Macau’s churches were built in picturesque settings. Our Lady of Guia Chapel is set on a hill with sweeping views of the city, the Chapel of St Francis Xavier is nestled in the picture-book Coloane Village and Our Lady of Carmel stands on a hill overlooking the sea in Taipa Village. The most famous is St Paul’s, the ruins of which sit on one of the island’s seven hills. The church was built between 1582 and 1602.
There are other signs that reveal Macau’s unique blend of eastern and western culture. Narrow cobblestone lanes are lined with stores that sell rows of dried meats and Chinese cakes; green vegetables are stacked in neat piles in front of Portuguese street signs while banners with Chinese characters flutter in the breeze. And the fragrant scent of fried spring onions and garlic wafts through the air.
The streets of Macau offer a glimpse of the city’s spirit, but it is the city’s museums that provide an insight into its soul. Start with the Museum of Macau, within the ancient fortress built on Monte Hill by the Jesuits between 1617 and 1626. Displays offer a fascinating look into how European and Chinese civilizations developed here over the centuries. The Grand Prix Museum has a collection of Formula 3 racing cars raced on the Macau circuit and the Macau Wine Museum provides wine tasting as well as information about the wine-growing areas of Portugal.
In 1999, Macau was the last colony to be wrested from Portuguese administration, after 450 years of foreign rule. When Portugal formally conceded control of the colony to China, locals were given the chance to apply for Portuguese citizenship and move to Portugal. But most stayed in Macau, and the city continued to prosper. It makes me wonder what the next 500 years has in store for Macau. Perhaps, one day in the future, someone might set up a casino museum. •
Photography by Christina Pfeiffer and City of Dreams.
Travel Facts
getting there
- Viva Macau, with a choice of premium or economy seating, flies directs to Macau from Sydney three times a week. Phone 02 9762 1020 or visit www.flyvivamacau.com
- Virgin Atlantic flies from Sydney to Hong Kong, from which 50-minute jetfoil rides connect to Macau. Phone 1300 727 340 or visit www.virginatlantic.com.au
where to stay
- City of Dreams is the Cotai Strip’s newest casino complex and has two hotels, with a third on its way. Phone +853 8868 6688 or visit www.cityofdreamsmacau.com
- The Venetian Macau Resort Hotel is inspired by the Italian city of Venice. Phone +853 2882 8877 or visit www.venetianmacao.com
- Four Seasons Hotel Macau is designed in an elegant, Portuguese-inspired colonial style. Phone +853 2881 8888 or visit www.fourseasons.com
- Mandarin Oriental is a right in the city centre, near the Jetfoil terminal. Phone + 853 793 3500 or visit www.mandarinoriental.com
tips
- Australian passport holders are issued visas on arrival at Macau.
further information
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