Macau: An Asian city of culture with an Iberian charm

The name "Macau" was derived from the name of a Taoist goddess of

seafarers known as A-Ma. When Portuguese sailors landed and asked

the name of the place, the natives replied A-Ma-Gao (Bay of A-Ma). In

time, Amagao was shortened to Macau.

Macau was a quiet port at the mouth of the Pearl River until the middle of the

16th century when Portuguese traders and Jesuit missionaries chose it as

their gateway to China. With the support of the merchants of nearby

Guangzhou it rapidly became a major entrepot for trade with Japan and

Europe, as well a point for the interchange of Chinese and European customs

and ideas. Compact in size, Macau and its two outlying islands have a total

land area of 21.45 square kms and a population of about 455,000 of which

about 95 percent are Chinese and five percent Portuguese and other nationals.

Taipa and Coloane islands are interconnected with the city by bridges - the

magnificent 4,380-meter Ponte de Amizade and the 2,600-meter long Ponte

Nobre de Carvalho - and a causeway. Hong Kong is 70 km away to the east

while Guangzhou (Canton) is 145 km to the north. Macau, which is connected

to the Chinese mainland by a narrow isthmus, is so close to China that only

the Pearl River, which is a wide as our Pasig, separates the two. Since the

opening of the Macau International Airport in 1995, travelers have been able to

fly direct to the territory. Meanwhile, majority of the visitors continue to arrive

via Hong Kong through a helicopter service with 22 round trips a day and

commuter service by various high-speed vessels which operate every 15

minutes from early morning to early evening. Traveling to Macau today is a far

cry from the way local folks' ancestors did in the past. In those days they

sailed on slow-moving wooden junks with their trademark batwing sails

billowing in the wind along this route. But what makes this laid-back

Portuguese enclave somehow different from most mainland Asian cities is its

unique Iberian charm. Elegant pink European-style colonial palaces and

stately mansions with white stucco trim with grey high-louvered wooden

shutters on green hillsides straddle between skyways, monuments and

skyscrapers. Other postcardpretty historical buildings are painted yellow with

that distinctive white stucco trim. City streets and direction maps, on the other

hand, bear both Portuguese and Cantonese names and white and blue tile

plaques bearing Macau's old maps adorn some walls of edifices in tourist

zones. Macau's renowned city square, the 3,700-square meter Largo do

Senado (Senate Square) whose pavement of colored mosaic tiles with wave

pattern, is reminiscent of plazas in the Mediterranean. It has a touch of Asian

color (and smell) through its Oriental flea market and herbal drugstores tucked

in its cramped side streets. A tour of Macau won't be complete without going

up its centuries-old lighthouse atop a hill inside the city and visiting the ruins

of St. Paul Church whose stone facade and staircase are all that survived the

fire that destroyed it in 1835. Nearby is the fortress-like Macau Museum which

showcases the enclave's rich history. Lacking the hustle and bustle of Hong

Kong's fast life and other hassles of modern city living, Macau makes up with

its friendly people who both value their European cultural heritage and their

Chinese lineage. This is very evident in the way they preserve their building

architecture that blends both Oriental and Occidental designs. But that's not

all there is to Macau. Macau's fame for food and wine is legend. When the

Portuguese arrived more than 400 years ago, they brought with them spices

and recipes from places they had visited: from India and other places in the

Far East, Africa and Brazil. The combination of all these exotic ingredients

together with Cantonese cuisine resulted in the appetizing Macanese cuisine

which cannot be found elsewhere in the world. What is amazing for a traffic

jam-accustomed Filipino visitor is, despite its scooter-and car-clogged

labyrinth of narrow cobblestone streets that wind around ancient battlements,

towering ruins and secret gardens, Macau has very efficient traffic and

transport systems. What's more, this tiny territory, which attracts seven

million tourists annually, is so well-zoned that you are always five minutes

away from where you are going. At the Museum of the Macau Grand Prix

Museum, which showcases a rich collection of Formula 3 racing cars and

motorcycles that participated in the annual motor race which was first staged

in 1954, a section pays tribute to the late Filipino two-time Macau Grand Prix

champion, Dodjie Laurel, by displaying his white cigar-shaped Lotus 22 racing

car. He died in a fatal accident in the raceway in 1967 in his third attempt to

win the top plum, which he won in 1962 and 1963. Aside from my two-day tour

of Macau's historic landmarks, museums, and temples I also viewed, together

with Maggie, a four-act comedy in patois (a local dialect similar to our

Chavacano, only this time it's Portuguese Creole) which I barely

comprehended, and a 3 1/2-hour Chinese opera - "Prairie" (with English

subtitles projected on a screen atop the stage) the following evening at the

imposing Macau Cultural Center which opened only recently. What is

noticeable though, during my cultural odyssey in Macau, is that museums,

like the Macau, Maritime, Grand Prix and Wine Museums, government

edifices and the new cultural center are staffed mostly by Filipinos - both male

and female - who work as security guards, ushers, shopkeepers, hotel

bartenders and as waiters and waitresses in specialty restaurants. Numbering

more than 25,000, the Filipino community is still expanding, according to Zoe

Bokingkito, a 30-year-old Tarlaqueqa who works at the Macau Wine Museum.

This museum features the history of wine-making and details of 750 different

Portuguese wines. To instill cultural awareness and stoke patriotic fervor

among its people, many traditional festivities dating back centuries ago are

being revived. The months of May and June are the ideal period to make a

visit. Aside from the Festival of Arts, Macau also had a "Festival of the

Drunken Dragon" last May 22. Little known outside Macau, this feast, which is

organized by the local fishermen's associations, is connected with exorcism

rituals. Early in the morning, following prayers at a temple, a group of young

and not-so young people, duly intoxicated by jugs of mao tai (that potent

Chinese rice wine) and cases of Tsingtao beer, performs a drunken dance

holding heads and tails of wooden dragons. The inebriated red-sashed revelers

then make their way to various markets along the waterfront, drinking and

dancing along the way, replacing those who become too drunk to continue.

The organizers, participants and their friends and relatives end the festivities

with a sumptuous feast..