"A pretty little place"

O major J. R. Hayman assina um artigo intitulado "From Singapore to North China and Japan" em várias edições de 1935 do Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps. Sobre Macau escreve:

"Another excursion from Hong Kong is a sea trip to the Portuguese town of Macao. It lies about forty miles to the south west of Hong Kong. Macao itself is a pretty little place as seen from the boat. It has a few objects of interest such as the old fort and the ruins of one of the first Christian churches built in China. 

One of its principal sources of attraction and a source of revenue to the town is the game of Fan Tan. There are several licensed houses for this form of gambling. It is interesting to watch the impassive features of the Chinese as they stake their money. At the same time they are constantly chewing melon seeds. 

There is one decent hotel at Macao and several reasonably good Chinese restaurants. Passing through the local food market I saw a peculiar local fish of a large herring type. Specimens of these fish were slit open and their hearts continued to beat in spite of the fact that they must have been otherwise dead for some time previously."

Troço da Av. da República na década 1930
(imagem não incluída na publicação referida)

Nota: A alusão ao facto de na época não existir "nenhum hotel decente" é manifestamente desajustada quando comprada com a ampla documentação coeva sobre o tema, nomeadamente artigos de imprensa e livros sobre múltiplos testemunhos de pessoas que visitaram Macau. Do tipo ocidental existiam por exemplo os hotéis Boa Vista e o Riviera e do tipo mais ao gosto chinês havia o Central, na altura com apenas 5 anos de existência, sendo o edifício mais alto da cidade.