I’ve been studying cities for a long time now so that when I
go to a new one (for me) I usually have a pretty good idea of what it is going
to be like. I’ve just been very wrong
about a new place – Macau.
I suppose I first learned something about Macau when I was a
student and took an interest in the declining Portuguese colonial world,
followed then by some knowledge of what happened in the aftermath of the
Portuguese revolution and the return to democracy of the metropolitan country –
associated with decolonisation of almost all of its overseas possessions. But I also knew that Macau remained
Portuguese until 1999, such that the Portuguese were still involved in part of
the Pearl River basin even after the British handed Hong Kong over to the
Chinese in 1997. And finally I knew that
Macau had in recent years become the gambling centre of Asia – and possibly of
the whole world, outdoing Las Vegas.
So what did I get wrong when I visited Macau for the first
time on a day visit by fast ferry from Hong Kong?
1. I imagined that
since the Portuguese had been the colonial power and they drive on the right in
Lisbon they would also do so in Macau.
They don’t: they drive on the left.
2. I imagined a much
smaller and poorer city than Hong Kong.
But although the high rise buildings were less numerous, the press of
people in the main streets in the city
centre was as great – and as varied.
3. I imagined that since it is only 16 years since the
Portuguese left there would still be a lot of older people who would be able to
speak Portuguese. But I only encountered
one – an attendant in a theatre who responded with the relevant pleasantry when
I thanked him in Portuguese.
4. I imagined that because Portugal had been an impoverished
colonial power they would not have produced much in the way of high quality
buildings, monuments or other lasting legacies.
Yet throughout the city centre I encountered wonderful relics of the
colonial past. The Largo do Senado
(Senate Square) in particular has the little granite block paving in black and
white that is so common in Portuguese
cities, as well as palaces in Portuguese style.
And the Largo de Santo Agostinho contains a set of buildings that would
grace any Portuguese city – the church itself, a theatre, a villa that is now a
major library, and a seminary – all set on the top of a hill that could be in
the Alentejo, or Tras-os-Montes or any other part of Portugal.
5. I imagined that
the new gambling industry would be confined to a zone of (possible) land
reclamation. Yet the brash gamblers’
hotels are sited on wide boulevards all around the old centre. And they are tawdry in their commercialism in
a way that went beyond anything I had envisaged.
Oh, and I was also surprised when, arriving on the ferry,
one of the first sets of buildings I saw was a row of old and gabled merchant
houses that would not have looked out of place in Amsterdam or Utrecht and
which must have been the work of Dutch builders.
So I got Macau quite wrong before I visited. But it was certainly worth correcting my
errors – a very interesting city.
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