About Macau
City Visit in Macau
Located on the southeast coast of Mainland China, Macau has been a point of intersection between Chinese and Western culture for four hundred years, particularly Portuguese culture. You can see the fusion of cultural essences in the details, patterns, and imagery used in Macau’s architecture, nearly everywhere you look. Of particular interest is the Historic Centre of Macau, where the old buildings still thrive, teeming with life and brimming with the mysteries of Macau’s multicultural heritage. The area covered by Macau is quite small, only 29.9 square kilometers, but its food, ancient architecture, shopping and rich nightlife attract countless tourists.
1. Pick up from Hotel
Note: The participants who enrolled city visit please arrive at conference Hotel at 8:45 on time. The itinerary is subject to the actual schedule of the day. In addition, as the seat of the business van is full, please don't take large suitcases to travel.
2. The Ruins of the Cathedral of Saint Paul
The Ruins of St. Paul's (Chinese: 大三巴牌坊; Portuguese: Ruínas de São Paulo) are the ruins of a 17th-century complex in Santo António, Macau, China. It includes what was originally St. Paul's College and the catholic Church of St. Paul also known as "Mater Dei", a 17th-century Portuguese church dedicated to Saint Paul the Apostle. Today, the ruins are one of Macau's best known landmarks. They are often, but incorrectly, mentioned as a former cathedral (see Macau Cathedral), a status they never had. In 2005, they were officially listed as part of the Historic Centre of Macau, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
3. Largo do Senado
The Senado Square, or Senate Square (Portuguese: Largo do Senado; Chinese: 議事亭前地, Cantonese Yale: Yíh Sih Tìhng Chìhn Deih), is a paved town square in Sé, Macau, China and part of the UNESCO Historic Centre of Macau World Heritage Site. It is an elongated triangular shaped square and connects Largo do São Domingos at one end and Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro on the other. It covers an area of 3,700 square meters (4,425 square yards).
The square was named after the Leal Senado, a meeting place for the Chinese and Portuguese in the 16th to 18th centuries, located directly in front of the square, where Leal Senado Building stands today.
In 1940, a small garden was built at the centre of the square, featuring a bronze statue of Vicente Nicolau de Mesquita standing above a stone pillar pulling out a sword. The statue was pulled down in the 12-3 incident as Mesquita was responsible for the deaths of many Qing Chinese soldiers. A fountain was built at its site and still stands today. Vast majority of the buildings around the square are European styled and many are protected monuments. The square used to allow traffic and parking lots were present, with increasing number of tourists the entire area was covered by Portuguese pavement in the early 1990s and designated a pedestrian-only zone.
Many large events in Macau were hosted on the square, this include festival celebrations, flea markets and performances. The governors of Macau also used to inspect their troops there. A number of Hong Kong films in the 1950s and 1960s had scenes shot at the square. The 2005 100 patacas note issued by the Banco Nacional Ultramarino features the square on its obverse side.
4. Leal Senado Building
The Leal Senado Building (Portuguese for Loyal Senate) was the seat of Portuguese Macau's government (Legislative Assembly of Macau and Municipal Council of Macau). It is located at one end of the Senado Square in São Lourenço, Macau, China. The title was bestowed on Macau's government in 1810 by Portugal's Prince Regent João, who later became King John VI of Portugal. This was a reward for Macau's loyalty to Portugal, which refused to recognise Spain’s sovereignty during the Philippine Dynasty that it occupied Portugal, between 1580 and 1640. A plaque ordered by the king commemorating this can still be seen inside the entrance hall.
A Chinese-style Pavilion used to stand on the site of Leal Senado building. That building was then a meeting place for the Portuguese and the Chinese officials,and where the Ming dynasty government would announce regulations to Macau. The Portuguese planned to buy the pavilion as early as 1583, as well as some Chinese houses behind it. However, it wasn't until 1784 that the Portuguese government finally purchased it at a price of 80,000 taels.
The Leal Senado building itself was built after the purchase, and became the center of Macau's politics since then. Portuguese rallies and celebrations were also held here. Although built in 1784, it was in a style similar to plain style from 14th- to 15th-century Portugal than the Pombaline style that was popular at the time when the Leal Senado was built. A number of institutions were affiliated to the building, including a museum of Luís Vaz de Camões, a post office, a court and a prison, yet all had moved elsewhere.
It was completely refurbished in 1904. In 1936 the building was damaged again by another typhoon. After the handover of Macau to China in 1999 it became the headquarters of the Institute of Civic and Municipal Affairs. It became part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Historic Centre of Macau in 2005.
5. Wynn Macau
Wynn Palace (Chinese: 永利皇宮) is the second luxury integrated resort from international resort developer Wynn Resorts in the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, following the launch of Wynn Macau. Located in the Cotai Strip area, it features a 28-story hotel with 1,706 exquisitely furnished rooms, suites and villas, versatile meeting facilities, over 106,000 square feet (9,800 m2) of luxury retail, 11 casual and fine dining restaurants, Macau's largest spa, a salon, a pool and approximately 420,000 square feet (39,000 m2) of casino space. The resort also features a variety of entertainment experiences, including the 8-acre Performance Lake with a choreographed display of water, music and light, the unique SkyCab, spectacular, large-scale floral displays by renowned designer Preston Bailey and an extensive collection of art works by some of the world's leading artists.
Wynn Resorts is the recipient of more Forbes Travel Guide Five Star Awards than any other independent hotel company in the world. Wynn Palace is the first and only resort in the world with more than one thousand rooms to receive Forbes Travel Guide Five Star Awards. Wynn Palace opened on August 22, 2016
6. Handover Gift Museum of Macau
The Handover Gifts Museum of Macau (Chinese: 澳門回歸賀禮陳列館; Portuguese: Museu das Ofertas sobre a Transferência de Soberania de Macau) is a museum to commemorate the transfer of sovereignty over Macau in Sé, Macau, China.
The construction of the museum started in March 2003 and was completed in October 2004. The museum was then officially opened on 30 December 2004.
7. The Venetian Macao
The Venetian Macao (Chinese: 澳門威尼斯人) is a luxury hotel and casino resort in Macau owned by the American Las Vegas Sands company. The Venetian is a 39-story, casino hotel on the Cotai Strip in Macau. The 10,500,000-square-foot (980,000 m2) Venetian Macau is modeled on its sister casino resort The Venetian Las Vegas. The Venetian Macau is the largest casino in the world, the largest single structure hotel building in Asia, and also the seventh-largest building in the world by floor area. The main hotel tower was finished in July 2007 and the resort officially opened on 28 August 2007. The resort has 3,000 suites, 1,200,000 sq ft (110,000 m2) of convention space, 1,600,000 sq ft (150,000 m2) of retail, 550,000 square feet (51,000 m2) of casino space – with 3,400 slot machines and 800 gambling tables and the 15,000-seat Cotai Arena for entertainment and sports events. The lead architect for the Venetian Macau were Aedas and HKS, Inc. joint venture, who were responsible for the design, coordination and implementation of the project on site.