It’s a spot of difference. Here you are crammed with sparking and spotlighted casinos. Here you are overwhelmed with bold mosaic pavements and colonial architecture. And this is why there are 22 million visitors who come to this tiny little place to try out their luck and some come to savour the Portuguese fascination.
Once named “Venice of the Far East” and later, “Monte Carlo in the Orient”, Macau shows off its most beautiful Portuguese preservations to the world – cobbled squares and streets of mosaic pavements, numerous baroque churches with façades freshly painted white or yellow; wrought Mediterranean balconies and terraces blooming with florid flowers.
The mix of the Portuguese and the Chinese culture becomes an essential potion to boost tourism. But among those 22 million visitors, how many of them do really understand the elements of this potion? A new arrival from Hong Kong Joseph Cheung shows that he only has little concept about Macau; he says, “I can have a nice but inexpensive vocation deal for casino resorts and spending my four days and three nights in a very European city.”
Friends of Cheung, who come from Mainland China, have placed several visits to Macau. “We came here to have fun in the casinos,” they expressed. “I know nothing about the Churches but I know they are beautiful and very European.”
Another arrival from Taiwan, Choi Wang-Chi says, “It’s all about casinos.” But when he stands in the middle of Senado Square and smiles before the camera, he adds, “I know this place is famous, that’s why I took photos like other visitors do.”
Seems like the traditions and carefree lifestyle are drown under the flood of newly built casinos. Seems like the functions and values of churches are forgotten under the pressure in turning them into tourist attractions. And it seems like Macau history and its culture underneath the mosaic pavements are ignored even though their beauties are repeatedly celebrated. It raises a question to this fastest growing city – are we enlightening our inherited culture to visitors or are we just presenting the façade to them, yet without unearthing a connection with the historical content and how local people’s life evolve around this tiny little place we call home?
Tourists and visitors have been immensely increasing, yet do they get to gain something from us besides the picture of Ruins of St. Paul? Maybe they do, in a way. And they are lucky, in a way, because our government cares about tourists. Director of Macau Government Tourism Office, João Manuel Costa Antunes affirms the new tourism packaging for 2007. He cites in the New Year speech that in 2007, MGTO will integrate new tourism elements with the unique cultural attractiveness of Macau to raise Macau’s profile as Asia’s popular and quality destination of leisure and entertainment.
Eight years after the handover, the government did not forget this precious unique culture that the Portuguese left behind. They remember – remember because of the benefits from tourism, and because they are big attractions for visitors and investors. So more squares and streets with mosaic pavements are built, big and small catholic churches keep on repainted; new buildings like hotels and tourist places are built in Mediterranean style with newly planted trees by the side.
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