The Old Macau

While the former Portuguese colony is best known for gambling, it also features historical, cultural, and culinary riches

- Christopher Dewolf

There’s a scene in the deliciously cheesy 1988 miniseries Noble House in which Pierce Brosnan, playing a young Hong Kong tycoon, tries to impress an American love interest with a weekend yacht trip to Macau. As they land at a sleepy pier and cruise along a waterfront road in a black-and-white Rolls-Royce, it looks as though they’ve been transported to some serene location on the Mediterranean.

Today, Macau is anything but serene. The casino boom that followed the city’s handover from Portugal to China in 1999 has been accompanied by an explosion of mainland Chinese tourism. Thick crowds trudge through the narrow colonial streets of Macau’s historic centre, selfie sticks in hand, posing in front of Macanese bakeries and the ruins of St. Paul’s, a 17th-century Catholic church that burned down in 1835, leaving only its intricate stone facade intact. But mass-market tourists aren’t known for their adventurous tastes, so it’s surprisingly easy to escape the crowds and experience a Macau that is more genuine — and more fun — than you might think.

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