From everything we had heard, our time in Hong Kong would not be complete without a day trip to Macau. Like Hong Kong, Macau is a Special Administrative Region of China with its own currency, government, and unique cultural background. While Hong Kong was part of Great Britain, Macau was a Portuguese province until 1999 making it both the first and last European colony in China.
Street signs in three languages…probably the only place you will see Chinese, Portuguese, and English on the same sign
Today Macau is primarily known as the “Vegas of Asia,” and while we, of course, hit up a casino or two, the highlight of our trip was the unique blending of Portuguese and Chinese culture, architecture, and food.
Our adventure in Macau began in the same way most of our adventures start…in search of food. In this case we were on the hunt for a Portuguese-style egg tart. Lord Stow’s Bakery was the originator of the tart, and they happened to have a shop in the Venetian. I’d like to say there was something unique about the Macau Venetian (or any of the casinos), but they were exactly what we expected.
The Venetian Macau was equally as beautiful and the intricately designed labyrinth just as confusing as the one in Vegas, but in the end, we were successful in finding the famous tart.
We had a fun afternoon checking out the casinos, although it is much harder to bounce around because, unlike Vegas, Macau does not have a “strip.” All the casino are spread out across the city. The casinos are clearly the main focus, but our favorite parts were Taipa Village and the Historic Center of Macau.
Taipa Village is home to Portuguese architecture standing beside Chinese buildings, surrounded by giant casinos.
The village lets you step back in time and enjoy quiet strolls along pedestrian alleys or a quick snack at a local shop. It may be hard to classify this as a “snack,” but we made a pit stop for a Macau Pork Chop Bun.
We followed the signs down a tiny alley to Tai Lei Loi Kei, the shop that is credited with inventing the iconic Macanese sandwich in 1968.
This sandwich lived up to the hype from other bloggers. How can you not love an oversized bone-in pork chop, marinated in a combination of spices, fried to a golden brown and served on a warm, buttered Portuguese bun.
You know the city has embraced its two most famous foods when the colorful mural on the wall of one of the town squares has a cartoon cat about to devour a plate full of egg tarts and a Pork Chop Bun. Macau is a unique place where the fusion of Chinese and Portuguese brought about the creation of these two Macanese specialties.
We walked off our “snack” by strolling up to our Lady of Carmel Church, which is perched on a hill overlooking the Taipa museum grounds and a lake.
Walking back down the hill earned us another snack. Sightseeing is hard-work, folks, and we couldn’t leave without sampling one more tart to have a true appreciation for this specialty. This time, we went with the slightly lesser known milk tart at San Hou Lei, and I thought it was just as good, if not better, than the egg tart.
As the evening approached, we made our way to the Historic Center of Macau, an UNESCO World Heritage site. Walking through the old city you can almost convince yourself that you are in Europe with small winding cobblestone streets filled with shops and food stands and squares filled with beautiful fountains.
Just like you would find in Italy, the ruin of St Paul’s Church overlooks one of the main streets in Old Macau.
The church was built in 1602-1640 but was destroyed by fire in 1835. Only the façade remains and is unique in the world as it mixes western Baroque style with oriental motifs. See the Chinese characters and lions hanging out next to the Christian figures and symbols?
As the sun set in Macau, St. Paul’s started to look more like the Spanish Steps in Rome, with groups of locals and tourists enjoying an evening out.
To wrap up our adventure, we headed to the casinos for some drinks and appetizers with the “Bellagio-esque” water show at the Wynn as our big finale.
Although Macau may be best known as a mecca of gambling and glamour, the unique cultural blend of the city will be the thing we remember most about our visit.
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