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Macau has seen a surge of skyscrapers go up, changing its skyline drastically. The tallest one is Macau Tower ( Click here), a 338m-tall copy of the Sky Tower in Auckland, New Zealand. The landmark Grand Lisboa Casino ( Click here), an ugly, 52-storey, lotus-shaped golden structure, is the second tallest and visible even from Coloane.

The feverish construction in Macau has also given rise to a public outcry for heritage conservation, especially as the Unesco-protected Guia Lighthouse ( Click here) is almost overshadowed by skyscrapers in the NAPE area.

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Literature

Macau’s home-grown writers are not insignificant; you can sample their work at the Macau Museum ( Click here).

First and foremost in literature was Portugal’s national poet, Luís de Camões (1524–80), who was banished from Portugal to Goa and then apparently went to Macau in the 16th century. He is said to have written part of his epic poem Os Lusiadas(The Lusiads), which recounts the 15th-century voyage of Vasco da Gama to India, during the two years he lived in the enclave, but there is no firm evidence that he was ever in Macau.

The teacher, judge, opium addict and Symbolist poet Camilio de Almeida Pessan-ha (1867–1926), author of such works as Clepsidra, lived in Macau for the last 30 years of his life; he is buried in the Cemetery of St Michael the Archangel ( Click here).

Local-born writers include Henrique de Senna Fernandes (1923–), author of the Nam Wan collection of short stories and the novel The Bewitching Braid; and the much-beloved Macanese writer José dos Santos Ferreira (1919–93), also known as Adé, who wrote in patuá, a dialect forging Portuguese and a melange of Southeast Asian languages, as well as Cantonese. A statue in honour of Adé, who wrote plays, operettas and poems, stands in the Jardim des Artes along Avenida da Amizade, opposite the Landmark Macau building, and in the Macau Museum you can listen to a recording of him reading his poetry.

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CULTURE

Traditional culture among the Chinese of Macau is almost indistinguishable from that of Hong Kong. However, the Portuguese minority has a vastly different culture that has evolved under a number of different influences through the centuries. Colonial Portuguese architecture survives throughout Macau, and Portuguese food is found in abundance.

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POPULATION & PEOPLE

Macau’s population is approximately 549,200, with an annual growth rate of 2%. Population density is more than 18,428 people per sq km. While the northern part of the peninsula is one of the most densely populated areas, Coloane Island has remained essentially rural, but Taipa is rapidly becoming an urban extension of Macau Peninsula.

The population is about 95% Chinese. Fewer than 2% of Macau residents are Portuguese and the rest are Macanese (people of mixed Portuguese, Asian and/or African blood) or Filipino.

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Macanese culture is different again. Unlike the Portuguese and Chinese communities elsewhere in the world, the Macanese community – a tiny community of the descendents of intermarriages between Portuguese and Asians – is very distinct and exists almost solely in Macau. The Macanese have a unique cuisine, set of festivals and traditions, and even their own dialect called patuá. The do (traditional woman’s outfit) has long disappeared, though you may catch a glimpse of it at certain festivals.

Portuguese and Chinese – Cantonese being the more widely spoken dialect – are both official languages of Macau. For key phrases.

For the vast majority of Macau Chinese people, Taoism and Buddhism are the dom-inant religions. Four-and-a-half centuries of Portuguese Christian rule left its mark, however, and the Roman Catholic Church is very strong in Macau, with an estimated 30,000 adherents (about 6% of the population). Macau consists of a single diocese, directly responsible to Rome.

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ECONOMY