China meets Portugal meets Vegas, Welcome to Macau

Last weekend (in honor of my 21st birthday, hooray!) my family and I hopped on the Shekou ferry and headed towards Macau for a night. The decision to go was sort of last-minute, but I had done my research and was properly excited to see this "Vegas of the Orient." Trip planning aside, I struggled to envision exactly what this place would look like, with a demographic of 95% Chinese and 5% Macanese=Portuguese, and both Chinese and Portuguese as official languages. Even though the Portuguese population is small, the Macau peninsula boasts a great many Portuguese restaurants and historical ruins-namely cathedrals. The area is known for its casinos, food and history, I'd say in that order. Needless to say, this eclectic SAR (special administrative region) of China is full of contradictions and cultural blends that I had no idea existed.

In all my travels, I never expected to see "edificio" and "China" on the same building.

"Macau dresses in green to receive the 2005 Asian Oriental Games." Asian kids + Portuguese + Chinese characters. And I can read it because it kinda looks like Spanish...Only in Macau.

Some lovely pastels and Portuguese architecture to go with your Chinese New Year's decorations...

For me, this is picture says it all. Portuguese inspired pastel building? check. Crowded high rises? check. Sea of Asian people? check. The Grand Lisboa casino sparkling proudly in the distance? check.

And what was behind me:

Ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral...former church, here? Yes, this is one of many in Macau.

We walked through the lovely Lim Leoc Garden located a few blocks from our hotel in Macau. I remeber commenting that this garden was the most "traditional Chinese" looking place I'd been yet in Asia. The pagoda on the left of this picture is situated in the center of the garden, accessible by the winding walkway partly pictured here. The paths curve throughout the garden up to the central pagoda because it is believed that evil spirits can only travel in straight lines.

Since my family isn't exactly the gambling type, we opted to spend our time at the Venetian a little differently-with tickets to Zaia Cirque du Soleil! It was my first time seeing a Cirque du Soleil performance, and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. The acrobatics, music, costumes and lights were all incredible. The Venetian itself didn't disappoint either :)