"Do not gamble," counseled the fortuneteller at Macao's ancient hilltop shrine to the sea goddess A-Ma.
I found the sport-shirted sage's advice surprising, considering Macao is now the world's foremost gaming destination. I had been even less inclined to gamble when I was challenged to bungee jump 764 feet off the Macao Tower, the world's 10th tallest freestanding structure.
There were no shortage of takers, but I wasn't about to hurl myself from the equivalent of the Chrysler Building, despite the tower's perfect safety record.
These are heady times in this former Portuguese backwater. Even Las Vegas' big players are getting in on the action: Macao (sometimes spelled Macau) boasts a stylish Wynn Hotel and a colossal new Venetian Resort - with indoor canals complete with singing gondoliers.
Most recently, MGM Grand has set up shop. Soon Macao's old Jai Alai Palace and Floating Casino (where 007 courted Lady Luck and danger in "The Man with the Golden Gun"), will be swept away for the gargantuan Oceanus, which promises to be the largest hotel-casino in the world.
Still, the "Vegas of the Orient" comparison rankles locals, despite the gaudy neon and such obvious emulations of Sin City as Macao Fisherman's Wharf - an attraction that includes a pyrotechnic-spewing volcano.
"Vegas will never be declared a UNESCO world heritage site!" dismissed one player on the Macao tourism scene, and although I might argue with the justice of that assessment, the worthy city of Macao did receive that UNESCO designation in 2005.
Settled by Portuguese traders in 1513, Macao for centuries served as China's first (and only) window on the West. The nearly half-millennium of Portuguese colonization left Macao studded with Mediterranean-style villas and fortresses, the first Western-style theater and lighthouse in East Asia, as well as baroque churches and chapels alongside Taoist and Buddhist temples.
Chinese tourists from the mainland, Hong Kong daytrippers and locals flock to have their pictures taken in front of the ruins of St. Paul's. Erected by the Jesuits in 1602 with the help of Asian artisans, the church was destroyed by fire in 1835. Only its lovingly preserved stone façade remains, rising majestically at the top of a monumental stairway to serve both as an emblem of the city and as a metaphor for almost five centuries of Portuguese presence there.
Directly adjacent is the Monte Fort, one of the many hilltop bastions built to guard the city against pirates and jealous European powers. Now a park, the fortress houses one of Macao's many topnotch museums |
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