Macau

Back in my very first days in China I had popped over to Macau for a couple of days and a night from a regular trip to Hong Kong. I remember the impressive Portuguese architecture, some sleezy prostitutes, and a casino. Fast forward more than a decade and Macau has become the world's largest gambling destination, with 2-3 times more revenue than Vegas; it had joined up two islands with landfill in order to build some of the world's biggest casinos and hotels (and indeed, biggest buildings by floor space); there is a bridge being built between Hong Kong and Macau (at 30km or so, it is insane); and the little place has changed dramatically.

Originally a Portuguese colony, it was also handed back to the Chinese around the same time that Hong Kong was (from the British) and then it promptly opened up what had been a monopoly in gambling licenses (to one rich Hong Kong tycoon) and the floodgates opened with the Chinese getting very rich and having a large appetite for gambling needed to be satiated (it's illegal in the Mainland). Plus of course much of the rest of Asia came over to gamble to.

It is very different to Vegas: the gambling games are mostly different to those popular in the West, the minimum bets are high, there was until recently little else apart from gambling to do there, and the place is tiny. Now it is seeking to have people stay for longer (with more shows and theme parks), and to broaden its income into other forms of tourism (there is a nice museum in the grounds of the old fort, some impressive funding for reconstruction of old buildings and museums explaining them, a great app for walks exploring Macau and free wi-fi covering much of the islands etc).

We went there a couple months ago just for a day and enjoyed walking around the old town with very impressive churches and sqaures alongside the famous Ruins of St Paul's Church (which only has one wall standing at the top of a large flight of stairs), as well as a quick trip to the Venetian. The egg tarts there are still delicious. We went back again for the three-day New Year's Eve weekend where there was a good fireworks display and we had more time to explore the two islands off the mainland (though which are now one big island since the land between them has been filled in--there is still some water between them and the mainland part of Macau though which is crossed by bridges).

There are well signposted walks, a few old buildings, and some sleepy fishing folk alongside a couple of nice beaches. A world away from the casinos. We spent more time in the incredible Venetian and the massive City of Dreams; Andrea, Hannah and my dad went to watch a decent show there; we got to know the police station quite well as we searched (successfully eventually) to get a bag back that we had left in a taxi); and we generally had a good time there.

It is an interesting place, but it is very small. Hong Kong seems big in comparison (and it is) - partly because it has more diversity to its economy, it has a lot more islands and more countryside, it has a lot happening, and it feels like a real city. Macau just feels like a few districts next to each other with a lot of tourists going in between them. It's quite a nice place to take kids: they love the Venetian of course; there are several expensive kids play areas in the hotels; many of the hotels are kid friendly (though not that cheap); there are playgrounds dotted around the city; the beaches are fairly sparse (at least at this time of the year) and clean; and there's no need to walk too much.

It is a fascinating place to visit for a couple of days, though I'm not sure I'd want to live there as it really is so small and so dependent on casino-hotels (which are starting to struggle now due to the economic slowdown, restrictions on Chinese going to Macau, and corruption crackdown that discourages people flaunting or spending their money that may be illicitly gained). The older parts can get totally over-run with tourists (as can the casinos) and the transport is not great, due to a lack of taxis and poor planning of the bus routes (we found many of the buses on the popular bus routes were always full at busy times).

Now it's 2016, our kids are rapidly growing up and playing with each other and life is moving on. Let's see what this year brings!