My Journey to Macau, the original Gateway to the East (part 1)

Yesterday, I went on a unique excursion to Macau, the original Gateway to the East (in the sense that Macau was the first true access point between the European and Chinese civilizations). Why Sunday? I decided against  Saturday trip to Macau, because I wanted to experience Catholic Mass in Macau for myself. Historically, Macau had always been the gateway, headquarters, and educator of Catholic missionaries hoping to spread the Catholic faith in China. In a sense, you could say that Macau is the ancestral homeland of Chinese Catholics.

As you may have noticed, this is the first time I have split any of my blog posts into multiple parts, as I would have had to cram too much information into each post for it to be readable. I will likely finish this post by tonight and continue on the other posts in the coming few days (I took a lot of pictures!).

Anyways, learning from my lessons of procrastinated planning in previous weeks, I started planning for this Macau trip around half a week before I left. This is what I originally planned and what it eventually became:

My original plan:
1. Take MTR to Sheung Wan Station, walk to Hong Kong Ferry Terminal, and then take Turbojet ferry to Macau Ferry Terminal (Outer) / Terminal Maritimo do Porto Exterior
2. Take bus route #3 and disembark at Porto Interior / Auto-Silo bus stop, then walk to St. Anthony's Church / Igreja de Santo António for Portuguese-language Mass
3. Walk to St. Paul's Ruins / Ruínas de S. Paulo
4. Wander around Old Macau
5. Eat lunch, perhaps the famous Pork Chop Buns (豬扒包) at Sio Soeng Hoi (小上海)
6. Visit Macau Museum (Museu de Macau)
7. Visit St. Lazarus' Church / Igreja de São Lázaro
8. Visit St. Dominic's Church / Igreja de São Domingos
9. Visit the Macau Cathedral / Sé Catedral (if already went to Mass in step #2)
10. Visit Senado Square / Largo do Senado
11. Visit St. Augustine Church / Igreja de Santo Agostinho
12. Visit Sir Robert Ho Tung Library /  Biblioteca Sir Robert Ho Tung
13. Visit St. Lawrence Church / Igreja de São Lourenço
14. Visit the Mandarin's House
15. Take bus route #33 to Edf. Chun Luen
16. Visit Taipa Houses Museum / Casas-Museu da Taipa
17. Wander around Taipa Village (氹仔)
18. Attend English-language Mass at Macau Cathedral / Sé Catedral (if not already attended Mass in step #2)
19. Take bus route #26A to Villa de Coloane-I
20. Wander around Coloane Village (路環) and eat dinner
21. Take bus route #25 to Jardim Lou Lim Ioc, walk to Porto Exterior, take Turbojet ferry back to Hong Kong
22. Take MTR and mini-bus back to HKUST

What it eventually became:
1. Take MTR to Sheung Wan Station, walk to Hong Kong Ferry Terminal, and then take Turbojet ferry to Macau Ferry Terminal (Outer) / Terminal Maritimo do Porto Exterior
2. Take bus route #3 and disembark at Porto Interior / Auto-Silo bus stop, then walk to St. Anthony's Church / Igreja de Santo António and miss the Portuguese-language Mass by 20 minutes
3. Walk to St. Paul's Ruins / Ruínas de S. Paulo
4. Visit Macau Museum
5. Eat lunch at Sio Soeng Hoi (小上海)
6. Walk to Senado Square and visit the Leal Senado Building, St. Dominic's Church (closed), Holy House of Mercy
7. Visit Sir Robert Ho Tung Library
8. Visit St. Augustine's Church
9. Visit Dom Pedro V Theater and glimpse St. Joseph's Seminary from the outside
10. Visit St. Lawrence's Church
11. Visit the Mandarin's House
12. Visit the Moorish Barracks
13. Visit A-Ma Temple
14. Take taxi to Taipa
15. Visit the Taipa Houses Museum
16. Eat some street food at Taipa
17. Take bus to the Macau Cathedral
18. Attend English Mass at the Macau Cathedral
19. Take bus to Coloane
20. Miss my stop and disembark at Hac Sa Wan
21. Eat dinner at Hac Sa Wan
22. Take taxi back to Macau Ferry Terminal
23. Take ferry, MTR, and mini-bus back to HKUST

Here are some maps of my journeys throughout Macau (magenta routes indicate travel by ferry, both light and dark blue for bus, green for walking, and purple for taxi)

A. An overall view of my journey from Hong Kong to Macau

B. A close-up of my walk down Macau Peninsula

Now off to Macau!

First, I got up early in the morning and after a short while, arrived at the departure gate for Turbojet ferries at the Hong Kong Ferry Terminal.

 Here is my Turbojet ticket to Macau:

And looking out of the window of my ferry was a dramatic view of Hong Kong, with the sun forming contrasting shadows on the low-level clouds:

Then, the ferry set off west towards Macau. From my window seat, you can clearly see the Mainland shoreline:

 

Arrival in Macau:

Afterwards, I quickly rushed onto the bus on to the Porto Interior bus stop, which is near the internal port of Macau (as opposed to the exterior port that I just disembarked at). Here is my walk through the streets of Macau on to St. Anthony's Church:

It turns out that I missed the Portuguese-language Mass at St. Anthony's by about 20 minutes - looks like I'd have to change my plans for English-language Mass at the Cathedral... In any case, St. Anthony's Church was quite beautiful to visit. Apparently, it is one of the oldest churches in Macau (although the current building is much newer) and used to serve the original Chinese Catholic congregation living in Macau:

In some places, Macau can seem like a very, very old Chinese village:

But in others, it can seem just like your average Portuguese town...

Here is the Na Tcha Cham Temple (大三巴哪吒廟) beside the Ruins of St. Paul:

And of course, the actual Ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral. According to the informative tourist plaques placed nearby, St. Paul's Cathedral used to be Mater Dei Church. It is one of the finest examples of Baroque architecture in Macau (the other being St. Joseph's Seminary), with the progressive levels in the facade showing the heavenly hierarchy (the saints at the bottom, the Virgin Mary above them, and Jesus with the Holy Spirit at the very top). Unfortunately, St. Paul's Cathedral was burned down during a typhoon in 1835 and was never rebuilt. Preserved behind its facade are the ruins of the original pillars flanking the nave, and the ruins of the old crypt. 

These are the ruined foundations of the adjacent St. Paul's College, which used to educate the Catholic missionaries who were preparing to enter China. Here, they learned the Chinese language and customs from veteran missionaries to China. You can imagine how these rooms used to be places of learning for European missionaries and now are just ruined foundations by the similarly ruined Cathedral.

Then, I headed up the Fortaleza do Monte - a former Portuguese fortress overlooking the Ruins of St. Paul's. Today, it is also home to the Museum of Macau:

As the Museum proudly notes, Macau was the first direct point of contact between the two great and ancient civilizations of Europe and China. Previously, they had been connected via various Middle Eastern traders as early as the era of the Roman Empire and the Qin Dynasty. But it was only after Portuguese settlers acquired Macau as a colony that direct cultural exchange began between them. Here is the first exhibit of the Museum - a showcasing of the development of Chinese and European civilization through the viewpoint of architecture, technology, religion, and history.

 The Chinese (followed by the Japanese and Koreans) used the bracket and cantilever system of interweaving wooden supports to distribute the weight of the roof onto a building's columns.

 Meanwhile, the Europeans' solution was to use arches to distribute the downward force exerted by a building's roof outwards onto its pillars.

 A typical Portuguese galley utilized sails facing in the direction of travel...

... while the typical Chinese junk had sails facing perpendicular to the direction of travel.

There was also a display of Chinese coinage from the Shang Dynasty up to the Qing Dynasty:

And here is a mock-up of a typical Macau street scene, with traditional Chinese farmer houses and Portuguese-style villas:

The inside of a Chinese farmer house:

A model of a Macau fireworks factory - Macau used to be a leading fireworks factory during its colonial days:

Here is one of the most interesting rooms in the Museum for me - a traditional Chinese room:

 

And right next door is a traditional Portuguese-style room, complete with family photos and religious icons honouring Jesus and the Virgin Mary (not visible in the photo):

Here is a view of downtown Macau from the top of the Museum of Macau - in some sense, Macau sometimes seems to be much poorer than Hong Kong and yet its economy is much more prosperous than Hong Kong's. Probably all the revenue from the gambling economy is distributed very unequally. However, the old houses make for a very interesting and contrasting flavour compared to Hong Kong.

Walking down the streets of Old Macau:

Coincidentally, I found Sio Soeng Hoi, a place famed for its Pork Chop Buns (豬扒包):

 

Yummm! The Pork Chop Bun at Sio Soeng Hoi was done very well. The bread was soft and the pork was tender, moist, and full of flavour. I'd recommend it to anyone visiting Macau. The only drawback was that the bun seemed pretty small, so I ordered two of them - I'd need them for the long walks ahead!

I continued to walk towards Senado Square, the public square that holds the Leal Senado building (the building that formerly housed the seat of government of colonial Macau), the Holy House of Mercy (which had a medical clinic and served as a refuge for orphans and widows), and St. Dominic's Church (which was built by three Dominican priests and is the oldest in all of Macau - unfortunately, it was closed for construction that day).

 St. Dominic's Church, which is noted by many for its incorporation of Portuguese, Macanese, and Chinese design elements. Apparently, the church has a Chinese-style roof but other than that, I couldn't really notice anything Chinese in its architecture.

The Senado Square is very beautiful and somewhat reminiscent of St. Mark's Square in Venice, although the buildings here are much more bright and colourful. I found that the brand name signage on the buildings ruined the feeling of old colonial Portuguese-style grandeur though.

I'm starting to notice that almost all Portuguese-style buildings in Macau come in only three colours - pink, yellow, and green! For the most part, I found that Macau retained more of its colonial history than Hong Kong (perhaps as the result of its several centuries-head start as a colony). Perhaps it's the fact that seeing Portuguese alongside Chinese on signage is a novelty to me, or maybe it's the Portuguese-style pavement and the Portuguese-style buildings.

The Santa Casa Da Misericordia (Holy House of Mercy) was established as the Macau branch of the original Portuguese organization and was responsible for religious works of charity toward the orphans, the sick, and the widows. As a result of such works by Catholic groups in Macau and Hong Kong, the Catholic Church to this day has built a good reputation in both ex-colonies for its hospitals and schools.

Here are some shots of the interior of the Leal Senado building, the former colonial government building now opened to the public. The walls are lined with the famous blue-and-white Portuguese tiles - they remind me of the old blue-and-white Portuguese flag:

 

In my next post, I continue on in Old Macau towards St. Augustine's Church, Sir Robert Ho Tung Library, St. Lawrence's Church, St. Joseph's Seminary, the Moorish Barracks, the Mandarin's House, and A-Ma Temple. Stay tuned!