Asia: VIVA MACAU Part 6
Personally, I don't mind Wynn's semi-Modernist tower; my real problem is with the pseudo-Portuguese trim. In fact, it was in Bowie's office, drinking nothing stronger than coffee, that I experienced my first twinge of nostalgia. Macau is a wonderfully complex, very real place with a rich, 450-year history, which is quickly being overrun by the purveyors of faux places and fake history. Granted, the historic core of Macau's peninsula, named a unesco World Heritage site in 2005, is home to a remarkable collection of meticulously restored Catholic churches, houses, and public buildings, plus a handful of Chinese temples. There is the iconic St. Paul's Church, now just a stone façade—the wooden church itself was destroyed by fire—and St. Dominic's, a 16th-century church with a genuinely ethereal sanctuary and a bell tower housing an impressive multistory display of sacred art. Senado Square, the center of non-gambling life in Macau, has perhaps been gussied up a bit too much, but it genuinely feels like a lost corner of Europe.
For me, the real pleasure in Macau is in roaming the backstreets, stumbling on enclaves of antique houses—some restored and others crumbling—or the hilltop Guia Fortress, a 19th-century lighthouse abutting a 17th-century fresco-decorated chapel. That this all still exists can be attributed to a massive preservation effort begun by the Portuguese in the decades before the handover, something that the English in Hong Kong never thought to do. Sadly, the UNESCO designation has not proven to be as big a draw as expected, and the heritage tourists are a mere trickle compared with the gamblers.
For me, the real pleasure in Macau is in roaming the backstreets, stumbling on enclaves of antique houses—some restored and others crumbling—or the hilltop Guia Fortress, a 19th-century lighthouse abutting a 17th-century fresco-decorated chapel. That this all still exists can be attributed to a massive preservation effort begun by the Portuguese in the decades before the handover, something that the English in Hong Kong never thought to do. Sadly, the UNESCO designation has not proven to be as big a draw as expected, and the heritage tourists are a mere trickle compared with the gamblers.
