Macau
Jun/15/08 10:38 PM
We spent the day yesterday in Macau, which is a Special Administrative Region of China just like Hong Kong. It was an interesting place- certainly a mix of the East and the West, like Hong Kong, but in a completely different way. While HK was formerly a British colony, Macau was a colony of the Portugese. So, there is a distinct Mediterranean feel to the place. Personally, the houses and apartments with gated porches over the busy streets reminded me of Rome.
Macau is sort of going through an identity crisis, though. On the one hand, there is a lot of great culture there. We saw St. Paul’s ruins, a beautiful Mexican-built Catholic church downtown, and historic government buildings. But, on the other, Macau is the gambling capital of the East. In fact, Macau’s revenue was higher than that of Vegas’ last year. Giant, glitzy casinos shoot up from the ground all over the city. Most of the tourism now comes from this industry.
Anyways, we ate a great lunch on top of a spinning, needle building like the one in Toronto. It’s the longest building-bungee jump spot in the world. Afterwards we met with some of the management and marketers at the MGM Grand, which opened here six months ago. They treated us like kings (I think they thought we were more important than we actually are) with all sorts of appetizers and a fancy reception.
Then that night we trekked to the Venetian Hotel and Casino, which was beautiful. The hotel is massive, with an Italian courtyard-styled shopping center surrounded by rivers with gondolas. The ceiling is painted like a realistic daytime sky so you feel like you’re in Venice. I lost net HK$200 at the Ventian and moved onto the MGM Grand Casino next, which was 15 minutes away. The MGM Grand is a quieter, smaller casino, but still very nice. We played roulette and black jack there and I ended the night up HK$250 overall. It was a lot of fun. I can’t wait to check out Vegas someday to compare...
Macau is sort of going through an identity crisis, though. On the one hand, there is a lot of great culture there. We saw St. Paul’s ruins, a beautiful Mexican-built Catholic church downtown, and historic government buildings. But, on the other, Macau is the gambling capital of the East. In fact, Macau’s revenue was higher than that of Vegas’ last year. Giant, glitzy casinos shoot up from the ground all over the city. Most of the tourism now comes from this industry.
Anyways, we ate a great lunch on top of a spinning, needle building like the one in Toronto. It’s the longest building-bungee jump spot in the world. Afterwards we met with some of the management and marketers at the MGM Grand, which opened here six months ago. They treated us like kings (I think they thought we were more important than we actually are) with all sorts of appetizers and a fancy reception.
Then that night we trekked to the Venetian Hotel and Casino, which was beautiful. The hotel is massive, with an Italian courtyard-styled shopping center surrounded by rivers with gondolas. The ceiling is painted like a realistic daytime sky so you feel like you’re in Venice. I lost net HK$200 at the Ventian and moved onto the MGM Grand Casino next, which was 15 minutes away. The MGM Grand is a quieter, smaller casino, but still very nice. We played roulette and black jack there and I ended the night up HK$250 overall. It was a lot of fun. I can’t wait to check out Vegas someday to compare...
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