Macao, where you find Jesus, Confucius, and Versace

Ary Hermawan ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Macao, China   |  Sun, 04/06/2008 10:45 AM

MACAO LANDMARK: The ruins of Saint Paul are a Macao landmark and one of the best spots for picture-taking. In 2005, UNESCO listed them as a world heritage site. (JP/Ary Hermawan)

When I told my colleague I had just gotten back from Macao, a special administrative region in China, he half-jokingly asked me if I had committed any sins there.

The mosaic question was hardly unexpected. For Macao, the last European colony in Asia before the Portuguese landlords handed it back to China in 1999, is famous, or, for some people, notorious for its luring cash-loaded casinos and night life.

Well, if you are intrigued, I did commit a sin there but I won't elaborate because, frankly, the truth would disappoint your interest. One thing's for sure though, it did not involve gambling.

Let me tell you about Macao, a country rich in culture and history. It is a place where the influences of Jesus Christ, Siddhartha Gautama and Confucius are sublimely fused.

And today, with fresh foreign investment funds flowing in to boost infrastructure, the region is on the verge of becoming the world's top tourism destination.

We're not just talking about casinos. Macao, as its local magazine, Destination Macao, puts it, "is destined to be the Shopping Mecca of China."

My Viva Macao flight landed smoothly at the Macao International Airport at five in the morning on one of the coldest days in the region in the past 20 years, according to local conjecture. The wind blew through my bones when I walked to the bus taking passengers to the airport's immigration gates.

Macao is about a four hours direct flight from Jakarta. It is located in the south-west of China, west of the mouth of the Zhu Jiang (Pearl River) estuary and borders China's Guangdong Province to the north.

I stayed at The Venetian Macao Hotel Resort, the largest building in Asia, which gorgeously displays romantic Medieval European architecture.

Though it is a newly-built commercial building owned by an American capitalist who is, by the way, the sixth-richest man in the world, its style reflected a close relationship between the Christian West and the great cultures of age-old China.

On the first day in Macao, my journalist friends and I were taken on a tour of the Titanic hotel, which was so enormous that my legs felt like jelly by the time we had left. After a good sleep, my adventure began again on the second day.

The organizer of our tour was unfortunately unable to take me around the small country because he had to accompany the other journalists in the press junket with which I had traveled. So, I set out to explore Macao alone, with only a few travel articles as my guide.

As I walked to the bus station in search of transport to the Ruins of the Church of Saint Paul and the Museum of Macao, I really doubted that I could actually get there. Public signs in Macao, including bus route maps, are mostly written in Chinese and, due to the country's former three-century-long status as a Portuguese colony, Portuguese.

A colleague who is a frequent traveler to the country warned me the locals could be a bit inhospitable and, on the most part, did not speak English.

"You had better take a taxi instead of a bus if you travel alone there," he said.

However, my fear turned out to be nothing more than unfounded prejudice. A young student at the station told me the numbers of the buses that would take me to Senado Square, where the church and museum are located.

A man on the bus also told me in fluent English a little about Macao as we passed over the long bridge connecting the Taipa and the narrow peninsula of Macao.

Most tourists come from Hong Kong and mainland China. Don't be surprised if you encounter a Chinese-looking person who is as foreign as you are in the region.

The Macao Tower, which is the tallest and, therefore, the most challenging bungee jumping tower in the world, attracted my attention as the bus entered the downtown area. The iconic Grand Lisboa building stood wonderfully and alluringly, symbolizing the region's thriving gaming industry.

I finally arrived at Senado Square and walked for about 10 minutes (based on information the man on the bus had given me, I didn't actually count the time, as I was very much enjoying the walk) to my destination. Directions are thankfully in English there.

The site is amazing. The ruins of Saint Paul's are beautifully historical. The historical site, which refers to the Gothic fa*ade of what was originally the Church of Master Dei and Saint Paul's college, alludes to the competing Christian entities in the once crowded sea trading center of the East.

The church is not fully Western, nor is it free from Eastern influences. Along with the statues of the saints, you may easily spot the engraving of a distinctive Chinese snake-like dragon.

Adjacent to the church is Mount Fortress, from which you can admire a breathtaking view of the city-scape.

Macao natives are predominantly Buddhist. Historical churches, however, have become a special characteristic in the former European colony. In the vicinity of the ruins of Saint Paul's, you can easily find other churches such as Saint Dominic's and Saint Anthony's.

The disciples of Jesus Christ were obviously not the first settlers in Macao, which gets its name from the A Ma Temple. The temple was likely built by the region's first settlers, fishermen and farmers from Guangdong, in honor of the Goddess of Seafarers.

The temple has survived colonialism and the changing faces of Macao. The locals still pray at the temple, where diverse pavilions, according to popular belief, are dedicated to different deities as well as Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism.

The next day I went to Hong Kong. It was actually not in the itinerary but the city is an hour away by ferryboat. If you are bored with gaming or spending your time in tranquil churches and shrines in Macao, the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong is only 250 HK dollars away.

However, Hong Kong will undoubtedly be less attractive compared to Macao in a few years time as the region, like its role-model Las Vegas, will transform from a gaming to an entertainment center.

Businessmen are spending billions of dollars to build shopping districts to lure the world's luxury brands such as Versace, Hugo Boss, DFS, and many others -- you name it, they have it.

Yes, development is a historical necessity but I really hope it will not eclipse the historical aura emanated by the churches and temples of Macao. I'm no shopping freak, but what can I say is that consumerism is today's zeitgeist.

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