Hong Kong: Day Trip to Macau

Apparently churches weren’t always white-washed, simple affairs and, before the bible was translated, they were adorned with skeletons, demons, angels and other scenes to remind the illiterate population what they were tithing for. I got to see my first example of this at the ruins of St. Paul’s Basilica in Macau. The only thing left of the 17th century church is the front facade, but that’s all that’s needed to see that this once one of the most prominent churches in Asia.

Macau is a famous day trip from Hong Kong for many reasons and the basilica ruin is just one of them. Today, the country is the gambling capital of Asia, but historically, its town squares and architecture are the oldest surviving examples of an assimilation of Western and Asian ideas. Macau was founded as a Portuguese colony in the sixteenth century and recognized itself as such all the way until 1999, making it both the first and last Western colony on Chinese soil.

The historical place was added to UNESCO’s world heritage list in 2005 and its architecture is a stark contrast to the towering skyscrapers and shiny modern feel of Hong Kong’s cityscape. We mostly stuck to the old towns and stuffed our faces with delicious Portuguese food, which was probably the highlight of the trip. We were bad tourists and skipped the casinos, despite telling ourselves that we would visit at least one.

In fact, from the arrival terminal, we taxied straight to the basilica and old town surrounding it. As mentioned, the basilica ruin was interesting, but the town had basically been turned into a giant outdoor shopping mall, featuring many international brands. The fort next to the basilica was a let-down as well. We were hot, bored and started acting like obnoxious tourists, climbing on canons and jumping off walls. I don’t blame the fort; it’s not its fault that it looks like every other fort we’ve ever seen.

From the Basilica we caught another taxi to the old streets of Tai-pa, which were very cute and delicious! Get lunch here. (This is important!) The street is lined with several nice traditional Portuguese restaurants, including Fernando’s and Antonio’s. The first option was closed, so we went with Antonio’s and loved it. We sat around for two hours eating and drinking the house wine, making it the high point of the day.

Getting Around

Ferries from Hong Kong to Macau depart every fifteen to thirty minutes and we probably didn’t need to purchase our tickets in advance, but did anyway. When booking, remember you can’t exchange tickets for a later time, but you can exchange them for earlier one. The whole trip only takes about an hour, so you can even sleep in a little before getting started. There’s also no need to worry about exchanging money as HKD currency is accepted everywhere.