You'll find Macao fascinating

Europe and Asia Combine in Macao

Macao is bne of fhe favorite sidetrips for visitors to Hongkong. It is six square miles of Portuguese territory on the China mainland, forty miles and seventy-five minutes by hydrofoil

from Hongkong. But Macao is more than a tiny strip of land. It is a wonderfully compact mixture of colonial Portugal, ancient China and modern cosmopolitanism.

You'll find smoky little Buddhist temples graced in the early dawn by swaying shadow boxers.

In the courtyard of one of these you'll find the stone table used for the signing of the 1844 U.S. - China Treaty.

Within a short distance there are bright and exciting casinos filled with gold, and glittering people. Just across the street the main shopping area begins, crowded with Chinese merchants and sidewalk mah-jong sessions.

Macao has twisty little cobbled streets leading past pastel buildings and a magnificent facade of Christian Cathedral, lighthouse and a Bishop's residence — all 15th Century European.

But facing the other direction you'll find little ladder streets — built before wheels were used for transportation — row after row of trade stores, and teeming colonies of sampans.

Mingling with these, among the Portuguese parks ..and gardens, among the rickshaws and vegetable peddlars, are the rich and leisured planning their entertainment at the gilded casinos, in the luxury hotels and nightclubs, at the canodromes or the wildly exciting world class' Grand Prix. 

For even more contrast you can visit the rehabilitation centres, where opium addicts are rebuilding their lives by knitting beautiful jumpers or beading evening bags. You can have a barbecue on a secluded beach facing the Chinese mainland, with only patrolling gunboats and the red sails of junks to add movement and color to the scene. You can peer across the "no man's land" of the Red China border at the inevitable poster of Mao.

Exploring is easy in Macao. Taxis and pedicabs are cheap and plentiful. Walking, except for the hills, is pleasant. But allow yourself a few days. You'll find Macao fascinating.
in Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, 16.8.1971

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