By Courtney

Rise and shine everyone! Some woke up before 5:00 am, while others snoozed their alarms until 5:30 am, rushing to meet in the lobby by 6:00am. For some of the girls, we got in the elevator to go down to the ground floor lobby, but found ourselves stuck in the elevator going up and down the different floors, only to realize that the lobby didn’t open until 6:00 am. Since the lobby did not open until 6am, the people that were in the elevator with me had to go through a different floor and make our way down to the lobby through a different entrance. As you can tell, our morning did not go very well, but around 6:05 am, everyone was ready to leave the residence hall. We were very fortunate to have one of our PolyU host students, Zelon, travel with us and help us with our adventure to Macau. We rushed in the morning and had to squish ourselves in the bus that took us to the ferry station. Once arriving at the station, we got our tickets for the ferry and had to go through a process where we all had to show our passports that it even seemed as if we were in an airport going through immigration. It was around 7:30 am when we departed from Hong Kong. Once we stepped into the ferry, it was a lot nicer than most of us thought. We thought it was going to be an outdoor boat ferry, however on the inside it looked like an airplane, and also had assigned seating. Considering that we were all still half awake, once we got onto the ferryboat, most of us had fallen asleep for the hour ride to Macau.

Around 9:00 am, we met up with our Macau tour guide, Jason. He gave a quick introduction about himself as well as a brief history of Macau. Once exiting the station, we got on another bus, which took us to Senado square. The first thing I noticed was that all of the sidewalks were tiled with intricate designs. Another unique observation was that some of the buildings were pastel colored and we later learned that there was a purpose for the color of the buildings and that the paint was mixed with chemicals and other elements to maintain its brightness, as well as fulfill a larger purpose. For example, in Brazil, they would use the blood of ox (which contains high levels of iron) as a form of insect repellent for homes, and the blood-tinted paint would be pink in color.

View of surrounding colorful buildings from Largo do Senado.

A community park area

Macau was administered by the Portuguese and had many different influences in the style of the country in the architecture, as well as the dietary habits. For our tour we had a long 9-hour day of walking the streets of Macau in which we got to see the different churches and buildings as well as learning about the history behind them. Some of the places we visited include: the Cathedral de Macau, the Casa Lou Kau Mansion, the Estrutura Catholic church, the Ruins of Sal Palo, the Fortress Armourial Gate, the Protestant Church and Cemetery, the Library and City Hall, the Theater, Saint Joseph’s Seminary and Church, and St. Lawrence Church. Two of the most interesting places that we visited today were, the Fortress Armourial Gate, and the Protestant Church and Cemetery. Some of the interesting facts learned about the Fortress is that it was built to protect from the Dutch, and that if there were any intruders, instead of firing at them, they would take a hot bucket of water and pour it onto them. Macau was also seen as the neutral third party between Japan and China and because of the food that was being imported through Macau, the dietary habits had begun to change.

Inside S. Domingos Church

Ruins of São Paulo

View from Fortress at Monte

At first the Protestant Cemetery was a bit creepy, however, we then learned all of the history behind how the Protestants didn’t have a place to be buried and were normally just thrown out into the ocean. This cemetery came about because there was no place for the non-Roman Catholic foreign community to be buried. There were also plumeria trees planted in the cemetery that were used to help with the smell, because typically a body was buried the same day that the individual had passed away. Although cemeteries are not always the happiest of places to visit, it was very eye opening learning the structure and history that took place in the cemetery, which helped understand the country better.

Old Protestant Cemetery

Streets of Macau

The humerus bone of St. Francisco Xavier

Statue of Jorge Alvares, the first recorded Portuguese navigator to visit China, on the Praia Grande.

At the end of the tour, some of the group was exhausted and decided to go back to Hung Hom, while others stayed and visited the casinos! I think we can all agree that Macau was not what we had originally thought it would be and that we got to see a side of Macau that we normally wouldn’t have seen if we had gone on our own time. Today was a very long and tiring day, but we all left Macau with a better understanding of its significance other than another “Las Vegas.”

Students who stayed in Macau to experience the Casino hotels

The Venetian hotel

Night view of Macau from ferry dock.