Lesser-Known Attractions of Macau

“Now what?” people say to themselves when in Macau.  Visitors there always find themselves in a particular alleyway, being pushed along with the crowds past numerous shops selling local but touristy fare toward the ruins of St. Paul’s church, which is the one must-see in the city.  Any list of What to See in Macau, What to Do in Macau, Macau’s Attractions, will list St. Paul’s as number one.  And then what?

After that, there doesn’t seem to be anything compelling.  Most lists will steer you to the casino-hotels or to the Mount Fortress next to St. Paul’s, where there’s also a museum of the city.  If you’re done with these few main sights and you’re not into the casinos, the city has other charms, but you gotta find them.  Let me give you a few.

Macau is now more known as a gambling city more than anything else.  I consider it a great food city, and have written before about how it’s so much better than places like Vegas, but you also need something to do, at least some directions to wander in between mealtimes.  Like nearby tourist-sight-deprived Hong Kong, Macau is also best experienced as a series of neighborhoods to wander, because it can be a surprising charmer.

 

Macau is much older than Hong Kong, and it still feels like a former European possession.  The architecture is Euro and it has grittiness about it that it can’t shake.  Colonialism is so often romanticized, but I’m no sap about it.  Former colonies can have an aftermath, a left-behind feel about them.

Macau has that, but like a former junkie now turned motivational speaker, it’s burst onto the scene with a new image that it forces us to confront that Vegas casino vibe.  Macau has followed Vegas in a million ways; the latest trend being upping the entertainment options in the city.  If you want to wander through a few mega-hotel-casinos, start with the Venetian, which at least tries to entertain you inside.  Others, like the monstrous Galaxy or the City of Dreams, just seem like bad, boring shopping malls to me.

For other sights, and to get the vibe of the city, concentrate mostly on the older, north part of Macau.  The city is divided into the original part which is the peninsula sticking out south from China, and the newer part that includes Taipa and Cotai, mostly reclaimed land that has newer buildings.  The two parts are connected over the water by long bridges; you’ll need a bus or taxi to traverse them.

 

Rua Felicidade

The northern part is awfully confusing for directions, and even after three visits, I’m constantly lost.  I have never, never found a good map of the city, instead relying on spotting signs and asking people.  Accept that you’ll get lost, but do wander here.

The main draw for visitors is called Senado Square.  Think of it not as one square, but as connected open areas close to those St. Paul ruins.  I’ve never figured out exactly which open space there is Senado, but it doesn’t matter.  A few minutes’ walk away from the crowds (and there are crowds) is Rua Felicidade, the happy street.  This street is far from unknown, but I’ve never seen many people on it.  You will feel as if only you have discovered it, and will enjoy its peaceful vibe.

This street of joy is so named because it used to be filled with vice.  Prostitutes, gambling, drinking and opium dens used to line this narrow street.  I’m always distrustful when I hear of any place described as a former red-light district, because that label is used far too often.  Far from being a stigma, most places brag about it.  Having a sordid past makes an area more interesting, and so many places play up the most tenuous of base links, but here the rumors seem to be true.

The street is lined with connected two-story dwellings, most white with red doors and windows with elaborate carved red shutters, all looking very traditional.  People keep saying there’s a ton of restaurants and shops along the way, but I’ve seen not many.  It’s always quiet.  One place I can mention is the Cheong Kei Noodle House (Loja Sopa Da Fita Cheong Kei) at #68, where the dry noodles with shrimp roe (Har Ji Meen) are brilliant, as is the steamed ginger fish skin.  Other places are known for their shark fin soup, but being an enlightened person, I know you won’t eat that.

 

From there, head north on Amparo Street (Rua de Nossa Senhora do Amparo).  You’ll pass the Calcada do Amparo alleyway on the right, home to several neat establishments, which you should explore.  One is Café Sab 8, a normal-looking café serving some very inventive dishes, all sounding normal and traditional on the menu but made modern in several ways.  Across the entrance to the alley, at #26 Amparo, is Food Truck, my favorite place in Macau for a wine break.  It’s a small place just designed for quick stops, getting a drink or some coffee and some snacks such as the salt cod fritters called pasteis de bacalhau, or bifanas and pregos, beef and pork cuts on a bun.  It’s very casual.  People help themselves to the cooler to grab a beer.  Make your coffee in the pod machine yourself and Pedro, the owner, will only charge you half-price.

Keep going north to an area called the Three Lamps District.  On the way, you’ll pass St. Anthony’s Church and the Camoes Garden, a large park where people hang out.  The Three Lamps District is so named because of a small traffic circle (pedestrian now) with yes yes three lamps inside it.  It’s called Sam Chan Dang in Cantonese, and Rotunda de Carlos da Maia in Portuguese.  Look for signs pointing to those.

 

 

Mohinga soup at Restaurante Birmanes Nga Heong

 

This is not a tourist sight so much as a neat neighborhood to hang.  The area is full of shopping and restaurants, and several small street markets.  It’s somewhat known for the Burmese immigrants, largely ethnic Chinese who had been in Burma but left for Macau due to instability.  Several Burmese restaurants are thus about, such as Restaurante Birmanes Nga Heong at 27a Rua de Fernao Mendes Pinto, one of the streets emanating from the circle.  I sat there and ate mohinga, a dense fish-broth noodle soup with fried catfish pieces, full of lemongrass and turmeric flavors.  They also do curry bowls with a potato base that look wonderful.

Your next stop could be the Red Market, where the “red wedding” scene from Game of Thrones was filmed.  Or perhaps not; I’m easily confused.  It’s the old market for the city, officially the Edificio do Mercado Vermelho.  It’s not terribly old, sorry, only from 1936, but what a wonderfully striking building.  It’s still a market, and only a few minutes from the three lamps circle along the Avenida de Horta E Costa.

You could keep heading north here to Mong Ha Hill Park, a wooded hill with short trails leading to the old Portuguese fort at the top, and the Lin Fung Miu temple at the north point of the park.  Very few tourists visit here, but if you’ve seen the Mount Fortress next to St. Paul’s, that’s better.

 

Lou Lim Leoc Garden

 

Next head to Lou Lim Leoc Garden, a true attraction, and one few tourists seem to know.  The gardens are in the style of those of Suzhou, an old city not far from Shanghai.  Suzhou is famous for crowded, busy gardens with gnarly rocks and twisted trees, the type that keep your eyes moving and your brain working to process it.  No simple zen lines here.  The garden is not small and exploring it is great fun, finding all the passages through the rocks and crossing the zigzag water bridge.  You will take many photos here.

Around the corner is the Sun Yat-Sen memorial house, where Dr. Sun practiced medicine for some time.  There’s not much to see inside except memorial plaques expounding his ideas for the government he founded, the Republic of China, a subject closely examined there.

 

Moving south now along Rua F. Do Amaral, back into tourist land, you’ll pass some public square and various public buildings and it’s all quite charming.  After the square, you’re in the St. Lazarus region.  The streets are brick and the buildings are old.  This is also a charming area, feeling very old-world.  Walk a bit and notice the architecture, the building colors, the cobblestones.  Three mustard-colored buildings on one street cluster to form a courtyard, the ground paved with colorful stone to make a pattern familiar with anyone who has visited Portugal.  Gnarly, old trees complete the scene.

One tiny side street (Calçada da Igreja de São Lázaro) will lead to Chui Lok Chi Mansion, right by the stairs, a 100-year-old building that is now a public art space.  When I was there, it was utterly unstaffed.  It was four small floors connected by a massive spiral staircase, each floor holding small rooms, each room for a different artist’s works.  Outside, hanging over my head in the street, were dozens of bunny flags, because apparently the medium of one of the featured artists here is bunny flags.  At least s/he won’t have much competition.

 

 

Nearby is a small shop selling overpriced Portuguese food products and some other public building whose function was a mystery to me, though many children were outside.  Also in St. Lazarus is the Macau Fashion Gallery (47 R. de São Roque) and the G32 Gallery (Rua De Sao Miguel No. 7A) which is a small restored residence showing how people lived in the past, except here the past is the 1960s.  A restored house from the 1960s, brilliant.

Every place I’ve described so far is a quite walkable distance north of Senado Square, except for Rua Felicidade which is just to the west of it.  One more excellent attraction sits south of Senado, called the Mandarin’s House.  If you’re heading down to see the more popular A-Ma Temple or the Maritime Museum, it’s on the way, and it’s just as good.

 

Of everything in this post, the Mandarin’s House would be my first choice to recommend.  You’ve likely not seen much like it, and it’s so uncrowded.  It’s a large house, sixty rooms or so, once the dwelling of the family of a man named Zheng Guanying.  Step through the moon gate into the first courtyard, and you’ll realize the scale of this house.  The ornate rooms go on and on over two stories, seeming almost regal.  This could be a movie set.  First built in 1869, it’s Cantonese style with some Western elements.  The house has several paintings and photos of the family, including the old patriarch in his robes, and the current head of the Zheng family.

This is a category of tourist attractions I would recommend should be higher than most people place them:  old rich people’s houses.  Some old mansions of the super-rich are well-visited but most are not.  People will stop by the old castle and capital buildings, but a non-noble rich person’s house gives a better perspective of real, if elevated, life.  I’d rather go to an old Duke’s mansion in England than see Windsor Palace.  I remember little of the nearby Maritime museum.  I remember the Mandarin’s house well.

 

The Mandrarin’s House

Spoiler alert:  Though called the “Mandarin’s House”, Zheng Guanying (1842-1922) was not actually a Mandarin.  He was a businessman first, a comprador for British firms, but later turned into a scholar, writing his magnum opus “Words of Warning in Times of Prosperity” in this house, and a reformist, someone who wanted to counter Western economic dominance by use of economic nationalism, and who favored a parliamentary system and greater rights for women.  He did well and I’ll give him credit.  Plus, his old house is great.

 

Another section of Macau that will give you a flavor of the old city is Taipa Village in the southern section of the city, a taxi or bus ride away from here.  It’s somewhat touristy but worth it, and I’ll cover in in a later post.

Everything I described above is free to enter.  There are no admission fees on anything like the gardens or the cool 60s house or even to see the Mandarin’s digs.  Moreover, these places get you away from the crowds and are just damn charming.  Macau isn’t a place with love at first sight; you gotta warm up to the city and get to know it before you’ll ask it out, and that’s why you need some other places to see.

 

Macau, like Hong Kong, isn’t chock full of sights, but it has good neighborhoods, and is worth exploring.  Give it a chance.  And then go eat its food.  It’s worth it.

 

 

I’ve written about Macau before, about how its food makes it a so much better destination than Vegas, and how exploring its back alleys is a brilliant thing to do.