On March 2nd, I embarked on my longest journey so far – a journey that took me through…
Times visited: 1 (1 day in 2016)
UNESCO sites visited: Historic Centre of Macao
Since I had originally planned on exploring more of China on my journey through Asia in the spring of 2016, I bought a flight ticket to Macao, an old Portuguese colony which is now a special administrative region in China (much like neighbouring Hong Kong!). But I got lazy with the visa requirements to China and instead decided to go to Mongolia, and found a cheap flight from Hong Kong which is located just 70 minutes by ferry from Macao. That meant that I could still use my ticket to Macao and explore this quirky corner of East Asia.
However, as a result of my new plans, I only had an afternoon available for Macao, but the city isn’t huge and I definitely made the most of it.
Macao is known as the Las Vegas of Asia (although Macao is actually the world’s biggest casino city – the gambling industry generates seven times more revenue than Las Vegas!), but I wasn’t there for the casinos. Instead, I spent the majority of my afternoon exploring the old city centre, which looks like it hasn’t changed much since the Portuguese rule in the 16th-19th centuries – well, apart from the huge glistening casinos that tower above it.
Despite the short amount of time I had in Macao, I really enjoyed exploring the unusual city where old meets new.
