There isn’t only one Special Administrative Region (the term for how HK is governed within/by China) in our neck of the woods. So Claire and I decided to go and visit this rival - Macau.
I have never been so unprepared for a day trip. As we whizzed across the sea on a ‘jetprop’, we realised that (appropriately for April Fool’s Day) we knew next-to-nothing about Macau. We had no map, no guide book, no idea what the major sights are. We just knew – there’s old European stuff, old Chinese stuff and an area like Vegas.
Luckily, we found a map and guide on arrival that had a section called ‘About Macau’. Let me reproduce this in full for you:
Many years ago, Macau was just a fishing port. There was a mass of seafarers decided to sail in a beautiful day. Unfortunately, they encountered a huge storm, but a mysterious girl occurred and ordered the storm to cease. After stood on harbour, the girl had just gone, therefore the seafarers built a temple named A Ma Gao, “a place of A Ma”, in hour of the Goddess.
No one knows Macau has became the perfect crossroad for the meeting of East and West cultures that gave the city an historical appearance that distinguishes in to these days.
Got that? Good, glad that’s all cleared up.
This is me in front of the major European history photo trap – the façade of the 17thC St.Paul’s cathedral, the rest of which burnt down in the 1800s.
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