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POU TAI TEMPLE Map

Pou Tai Un; 5 Estrada Lou Lim Ieok; 9am-6pm

This is the largest temple complex on the islands. The main hall, dedicated to the Three Precious Buddhas, contains an enormous bronze statue of Lord Gautama, and there are prayer pavilions and orchid greenhouses scattered around the complex. There’s also a popular vegetarian restaurant ( Click here).

FOUR-FACED BUDDHA SHRINE Map

O Buda de Quatro Faces; cnr Estrada Governador Albano de Oliveira & Rua de Fat San

Northeast of the Macau Jockey Club racetrack’s main entrance is this Buddhist shrine guarded by four stone elephants and festooned with gold leaf and Thai-style floral bouquets. It’s a popular place to pray and make offerings before race meetings.

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Coloane Island

The small island of Coloane (Lo Wan in Cantonese) is a world away from Macau peninsular, atmosphere-wise. The tallest buildings here are only a couple of storeys. It was a haven for pirates until 1910, when the Portuguese fought off the last pirate assault on the South China Sea. Today Coloane retains Macau’s old way of life and being, though some quaint residential quarters were demolished to make way for luxurious villas. To visit Coloane Island board bus 21A at A-Ma Temple or bus 25 at Portas do Cerco (border crossing). Both head to Hác Sá beach and have stops at Avenida do Infante Dom Henrique and Coloane Village.

COLOANE

COLOANE VILLAGE Map

Tourism has given the economy in Coloane Village a big boost, but it is still a sleepy fishing village in character. The narrow lanes flanked by temples still ooze old-world charm and make strolling a joy.

The bus drops you off in the village’s attractive main square; Coloane market is on the eastern side. To the west is the waterfront. From here a sign points the way north to the Sam Seng Temple (2 Rua dos Navegantes), a small, family altar-like temple. Just past the temple is a quaint old wharf and beyond that, about a dozen junk-building sheds, although a fire in 1999 destroyed many of the sheds.

CHAPEL OF ST FRANCIS XAVIER Map

Capela de São Francisco Xavier; Avenida de Cinco de Outubro; 10am-8pm

This chapel was built in 1928 to honour St Francis Xavier, a missionary in Japan. It has little architectural style but don’t be disappointed. It’s a delightful church painted in yellow and embellished with red lanterns. The inside contains an interesting portrait of a bodhisattva-like Virgin Mary. A fragment of the saint’s arm bone was once kept in the chapel, but it has now been moved to St Joseph Seminary on the Macau Peninsula.

In front of the chapel are a monument and fountain surrounded by four cannonballs that commemorate the successful – and final – routing of pirates in 1910.

TEMPLES Map

Southeast of the Chapel of St Francis Xavier, between Travessa de Caetano and Travessa de Pagode, is a small Kun Iam Temple – just an altar inside a little walled compound. If you walk just a little further to the southeast, you’ll find a newly renovated Tin Hau temple up in Largo Tin Hau Miu.

At the south end of Avenida de Cinco de Outubro in Largo Tam Kong Miu, Tam Kong Temple is dedicated to a Taoist god of seafarers. To the right of the main altar is a long whale bone, which has been carved into a model of a boat, with a dragon’s head and a crew of men in pointed hats. To the left of the main altar is a path leading to the roof, which has views of the village and waterfront.

HÁC Sá BEACH Map

Hác Sá (Black Sand) is the most popular beach in Macau. The sand is indeed a grey to blackish colour and makes the water look somewhat dirty (especially at the tide line), but it’s perfectly clean. Lifeguards keep the same schedule here as on Cheoc Van beach.

A-MA STATUE Map

Estátua da Deusa A-Ma; Estrada do Alto de Coloane

Atop Alto de Coloane (176m), this 20m-high white jade statue of the goddess who gave Macau its name (see the boxed text) was erected in 1998. Below it is Tian Hou Temple ( 8am-7.30pm), which, together with the statue, form the core of A-Ma Cultural Village,