Macau preserves its history in the midst of rapid change

An elderly woman performs the early-morning Chinese shadow boxing exercise, tai chi. I watch, as I did 20 years ago, when I first visited here, just as Portugal handed Macau over to the Chinese.

But there is a difference: Then, the backdrop was Luis de Camoes garden, named for a 16th century Portuguese poet. With its circular walks, tiled walls and dense stands of ferns, palms, bamboo and banyans, the park is a striking example of Portuguese architecture — amid Chinese flora.

Today, the backdrop is a towering complex of casino hotels in Macau’s “the Cotai Strip,” housing the world’s busiest gaming business, $28 billion wagered in 2016, according to government data.

This is the new Macau, the one likeliest to be seen by the rare U.S. visitor — only 91,000 last year, less than 1 percent of the 15.7 million who visited Macau in 2016. The rest are Asians, almost all of them mainland Chinese.

But the old Macau remains — indeed it’s better maintained today than it was under the Portuguese, making this a modern “tale of two cities.”

I returned to Macau prepared to hate what’s happened. How could this “Las Vegas on steroids,” as a friend observed, possibly embrace its architectural, religious, cultural and culinary past? Many cities, especially fast-developing Asian cities, have erased what “was” in favor of what’s “now.” Shanghai, Seoul and Saigon come to mind.

But some, like Macau, have developed and preserved. On this return trip, I decided to revisit the old as I became acquainted with the new.

The old is a meandering, 1.2 mile walk from the A-Ma Temple at Macau’s southern tip to the Protestant Cemetery in the north, near the border with mainland China. In between are 20 more sites that, together, are recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. There are gardens and piazzas, churches and church ruins, mansions and military barracks, and sections of the 16th century city wall.

“With its historic street, residential, religious and public Portuguese and Chinese buildings,” UNESCO says, “the historic center of Macao … bears witness to one of the earliest and longest-lasting encounters between China and the West, based on the vibrancy of international trade."

Portugal was the first European power to develop trade in China. Beginning in 1535, the Portuguese used Macau as its base for China trade. Ships from Europe would call at Macau before sailing up the Pearl River to Canton, now Guangzhou.

In 1603, they built the Jesuit church of Sao Paulo, now a ruin, and the most-visited site in old Macau. Hundreds of visitors, mostly in groups, pose on the vast staircase in front of the intricately carved, stone façade. The scene is party-like, despite signs that request visitors to “behave with reverence.”

Vendors work the periphery, selling t-shirts and hats. One of the vendors was a young Macau man handing out canvas tote bags reading, “Jesus Loves You.”

“Are you Australian?” he asked.

“No, American,” I answered.

“But you’re not fat,” he said. “One of two Americans are fat.”

“Actually, it’s two of three,” I said.

“Eat more rice,” he said.

“And veg,” I said.

He saluted.

Much of the new in Macau is centered in a strip of landfill between two islands south of old Macau, Taipa and Coloane. The strip is called “Cotai,” and it is home to a dozen casino complexes with names familiar to any visitor to the Las Vegas strip: Venetian, Sands, Wynn, MGM.

Gaming revenue declined the last three years, but analysts say it’s back strong in 2017.

At Galaxy Macau, where I stayed, 32-story hotels anchor the corners of a 246-acre complex. The 550,000-square foot casino is in the center, busy from mid-morning until the wee hours, especially on weekends and holidays.

It’s casino-bright, even garish, but there is no smoking.

The biggest surprise were the shops that ring the casino. Flip through the first 30 pages of Vogue. Every high-end advertiser is represented here: fashion, shoes, bags, leather goods, jewelry and watches. Who shops here? A staffer at the concierge desk said wives of the (mostly male) winners shop for clothing.

“The winners buy gold and jade,” she said. “Chinese love gold.”

With growth and development come problems. These include long lines at entry points, traffic congestion and dense crowds almost everywhere.

But Macau is dealing with it: A second ferry terminal opened. The international airport expanded. And a bridge (longest in the world) will soon connect Hong Kong and Macau. The best approach, for now, is to avoid weekends and holidays.

Will Macau, as it develops further, continue to invest in preserving its past? It’s an open question, often discussed among preservationists here. One indication that it will comes from a pair of recently opened, store-front museums near the Luis de Camoes garden.

One is the Patane Night Watch House, which centuries ago “served to report time and remind people to take precautions against fire and theft,” according to preservationists. The other is the pharmacy where Sun Yat Sen practiced Western medicine decades before leading the revolution creating the first Republic of China.

One difference: Both museums celebrate Macau’s Chinese culture, not its Portuguese past.

This story was originally published November 18, 2017 at 5:56 PM with the headline "Macau preserves its history in the midst of rapid change."