Baccarat, Bordellos and Bakeries
And other interesting finds in the maze of old Macau
Baccarat, Bordellos and Bakeries
And other interesting finds in the maze of old Macau
Avenue de Almeida Ribeiro slices through the heart of old Macau like a knife, one of the few straight roads in the area. It was laid out in 1918 and runs from the Praia Grande, on what was then the outer harbour, to the wharves on the inner harbour. Prior to its construction, the only way to get from one to the other was to navigate a maze of narrow streets, none of which appear to have been planned with the aid of a t-square.
Almeida Ribeiro remains an important thoroughfare to this day. Lined with stately buildings and frequently clogged with cars and buses as they grumble past the elegant Central Hotel, once the tallest building in Macau, to Ponte 16.
A hotel and casino have been built at Ponte 16, but the old wharf buildings still survive, and so too does the maze of narrow streets. The latter were laid out during a period of urban renewal, which took place between the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They occupy the area west of St. Paul’s, and stretch from Camões Garden in the north almost all the way down to the A-Ma temple in the south.
It would be impossible to plan a meaningful walking route through them, and besides, it would spoil the fun of getting fabulously lost while stumbling upon mouth-watering bakeries and restaurants, art galleries, pop-up exhibitions, and inviting coffee shops. Instead, I’ll just highlight a few key places to keep an eye out for.
The old wharf at Ponte 15 (left) and early morning on Avenue de Almeida Ribeiro
Camões Garden is a delightful place to begin your peregrinations. Start early, they open at 06:00, and wander through the wooded grounds. Often, you will meet tai chi practitioners going through their moves. The gardens were originally an estate owned by a wealthy Portuguese merchant named Manuel Pereira. He built a mansion on the grounds in 1770. It was leased British East India Company until 1835, after which it was passed on to another member of the Pereira family. He had a grotto installed dedicated to the Portuguese poet Luís de Camões. It was acquired by the government in 1885 and turned into a park. The mansion is now the Fundação Oriente, or Oriental Foundation, which often houses exhibitions of local art, science, and culture.
The protestant cemetery, right next to the foundation, is the last resting place of Macau’s most famous British resident, the artist George Chinnery, who was interred there in 1852. Chinnery was the only Western artist in Asia at the time, and his work documents the lives of local people and places from the era.
Founded by Jesuit missionaries in 1558, St. Anthony’s church is one of the oldest in Macau. Originally, it was a bamboo structure, but was rebuilt with a granite facade and foundations in 1638. It has been renovated several times since, due to fires, the last being in 1930. It was a popular wedding venue for the Portuguese community, which earned it the local sobriquet Fa Vong Tong, which means Church of Flowers.
Camoes Garden (left), Oriental Foundation (right), and St Anthony’s Church (below)
The area to the west of St Paul’s is bounded by a road that arcs around the backstreets, starting with Rua dos Faitioes at the north end and culminating in Rua dos Mercadores (Merchants Street) where it meets Ribeiro at the Central Hotel. About halfway along this arc, there is an interesting side road called Rua de Ervanários with restaurants and a small emporium where the classic egg tart is taken to new heights with numerous flavourings, including matcha, blueberry and taro, amongst others. Intersecting these is Rua das Estalagens, which cuts all the way through from Ponte 16, culminating at Traversa da Se and Lou Kau’s Mansion.
Lou was a wealthy businessman and property tycoon. He played an important part in the development of these streets through which we wander, as well as playing a major role in the nascent gambling industry. These are some of the oldest roads in Macau and once formed the paths that linked the outer and the inner harbour before the construction of Avenue de Almeida Ribeiro. A model in the Maritime Museum shows that Macau’s original coastline was once a series of bays filled with muddy swamps. Successive waves of reclamation have made it nearly impossible to work out where the original shoreline was, but at some point, Avenida do Outubro marked the waterfront.
Buying snacks on Rua dos Ervanarios (left), Lou Kau’s Masion (right), and the altar of Hong Chan Kuan Temple (below)
At the corner of Outubro and Estalagens, you will find Hong Chan Kuan Temple or Pagode de Bazar. According to legend, the residents of the area had found a statue of Marshal Hong Gong, who is noted for his ability to extinguish fires, floating in the water nearby, and so built a shrine there. The temple itself was built in 1860. Inside the Marshal, dressed in red and gold, occupies an intricately carved altar.
During spring and summer weekends, the Hong Kung Night Market sets up in Outubro offering a range of local foods as well as crafts and entertainment. It crosses Avenue de Almeida Ribeiro just to the south of Ponte 16.
There goes the neighbourhood
Rua da Felicidade is one of the more infamous streets in the area. Long before it became Rua da Felicidade, though, it was part of a swamp. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the area was a cemetery for exiled Portuguese sailors and settlers who had succumbed to disease and hardship. It was also a processing centre for indentured labourers, or coolies.
As part of the modernisation project, the swamps were reclaimed and slums demolished. A new street, lined with smart, two-story, Southern Chinese-style shophouses with green, European-style shutters, which were intended to make the street more airy, was laid out.
Rua Da Felicidade
Rua Da Felicidade means Street of Happiness, and it very quickly lived up to its name by becoming Macau’s premier entertainment district, with brothels, opium dens, gambling parlours, restaurants, and theatres alongside more traditional goods such as medicines, groceries, and festival items.
In its heyday, it was the place to be seen, a gritty and cosmopolitan atmosphere where colonial administrators, local merchants, and sailors from around the world would mingle. The opium dens and brothels have long gone, and the gambling has moved into larger premises, but this little street, with its casinos, operated by Lou Kau and others, was the seed that grew into a mighty tree, the fruits of which still fill the government’s coffers to this day.
Another important artery between the inner harbour and the city was Rua do Gamboa. The road starts at St Augustine’s Church, where it is named Calcada do Gamboa, and runs all the way down to the waterfront opposite the inner harbour ferry terminal. At the bottom end, there is a distinctive gatehouse, through which the road passes (main picture).
Making sweet almond cakes at Pastelaria Chui Heong on Rua do Gamboa (left), The old Opium House (right)
The road is named after António José de Gamboa, a Portuguese businessman who made his fortune trading cotton and opium. The road was once the hub of opium processing in Macau. Much of the paste that was produced here was intended for export, though there were opium dens as well. Sweet almond cakes are made there today. Pastelaria Chui Heong is perhaps the best known. From the street, you can watch as the sweet treats are made and packed, and next door, you can buy them to take home.
The building that sits at the corner of Rua das Lorchas and Praça de Ponte e Horta is an old opium warehouse. It was built in 1880, and its handsome arched verandah and shuttered upper-floor windows are a testament to the importance of the narcotic, the taxation of which accounted for almost 20% of Macau’s revenues at that time. These days, it is the home of the Tong Sin Tong Second Clinic, a charitable institution that provides health care for the less fortunate.
Hotel suggestions
Sofitel Macau at Ponte 16 Hotel
Related: Sticky Fingers on Happiness Street