China, China, China… They say, it is one of those countries which you either love or hate. If you do happen to love it during your first visit, well, then you are most likely to come back again, and this is exactly what happened to me.
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| The Great Wall of China |
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| Mao in Tiananmen Square, Beijing |
During my first trip to China I saw and experienced the essentials – walked the Great Wall of China, took a picture of the Chairman Mao, ate scorpions at the night market, awed at thousand year old Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an, mercilessly bargained in Suzhou, viewed Shanghai from the highest world’s observatory, met my Chinese friends in Guangzhou and Shenzhen and did some serious gadget shopping in Hong Kong. I absolutely loved the trip, but… I felt as if I have not seen the real China yet, as if there was much more to China than the big city life.
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| Eating scorpions at the night market, Beijing |
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| Sugar syrup covered fruits - one of the most popular street deserts (Xi'an) |
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| Scyscrapers in Shanghai |
When my exchange year in Singapore was nearly over, I started planning my second trip to China. Unfortunately, most of my classmates were much more interested in sandy beaches nearby Singapore, and I ended up traveling alone – again.
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| Macau at night |
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| Macau casinos at night |
I decided to visit Macau and Hong Kong on the way, before heading into the mainland China. Many people often ask – so what exactly is Macau and Hong Kong, are they IN China? Or are they independent countries? And why is it important for travelers?
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| Grand Lisboa - one of the largest casinos in Macau |
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| Grand Lisboa's building constantly changes its colours |
First of all, both Macau and Hong Kong are so called “Special administrative regions of China”. So, yes, they are in China, but their legal systems are in some cases very different from the mainland China. For example, most of the foreigners need to get a visa before going into China – but they do not need a visa for Macau or Hong Kong. This is very important if you have a single entry visa to China – once you enter Hong Kong from China, your visa is not valid anymore.
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| Macau's TV tower at night |
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| Most of the signs in Macau are written in Portuguese and Cantonese, sometimes - English |
Both Hong Kong and Macau have their own monetary, customs, police systems, etc. It is the so called “One country – two systems” policy. Despite of being so close to each other, Macau and Hong Kong are not similar at all, mostly due to their different history. Both of them have been colonized by Europeans. Macau was administered by the Portuguese up until the 1999, while Hong Kong – by the British until 1997.
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| Inside of the casino - expensive brands and red carpets... |
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| Wynn - one of the most expensive hotels in Macau |
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| Wynn at night |
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| Macau city centre |
I went to Macau first. Unfortunately, I could not speak any Portuguese back then, and my basic Mandarin did not help either, as Macanese understand only Cantonese. But, as always, I managed to get around.
I spent two days in Macau, and it was just right to see and do everything you have to. Macau… I do not know what I was expecting to see, but Macau surprised me. I did not anticipate seeing such a big difference between the rich and the poor.
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| The "European" or "Portuguese" part of Macau |
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| Lots and lots of names in Portuguese! |
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| The Chinese part of Macau |
Shiny, sparkling Casinos looked amazing at night. They were beautiful, big and made you feel like in Vegas. Yet after entering one of the biggest casinos I noticed that most of the players did not wear fancy clothes, as you see in movies. No, they were all just very simple people who came there to kill their time. It seemed as if Casinos were the main source of jobs as well as amusements. In the daylight, Casinos were just plain tall buildings, towering above the poor houses and dirty streets of Macau.
The small old town, reminding of fisherman villages in Portugal, with that one remaining wall of St Paul’s Cathedral, is a perfect weekend getaway for Chinese people, who cannot afford to go all the way to Europe. For Europeans, on the other hand, this unusual mixture of Southern European architecture and Asian culture might look more weird than interesting.
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| St Paul's Cathedral's wall |
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| Young Macanese being taught the essentials ;) |
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| Even when there is no direct sunlight, most of the appearance-concerned Chinese women try to avoid getting a tan |
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| The other view of Macau, literally, 100 meters away from the St Paul's wall |
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| St Paul's Cathedral's Wall - again |
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| Casinos in the daytime |
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| Macau museum - which was closed exactly on the day we were there |
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| Should I aim at the casinos? |
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| Poor Macau areas from above |
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| There is a nice garden on a hill near the Museum of Macau - many locals climb all the way up just to eat their lunch there |
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| Of course, we did some shopping, too... |
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| Tourist areas are kept clean and pretty |
Nevertheless, I enjoyed my short stay in Macau. One of the highlights of the trip was the visit to the Macau tower. The tower itself is nothing special, even the architecture was copied from Auckland’s Sky Tower. However, there are four activities you can do once you are there: 1 – climb the tower, 2 – sky walk (walk around the tower, from the outside), 3 – sky fly (do a controlled-speed jump from a tower), 4 – sky jump (do a free fall bungee jump). For the first time in my life, I did the bungee jump.
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| Panoramic view of Macau from the TV tower |
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| The TV tower from below |
Macau tower is definitely one of the best places to do bungee jump, and I think one of the most expensive ones too. At 233 meters, it is the world’s highest bungee jump... 6 seconds of free fall cost me over 200 Euros, but it is an experience I will not forget anytime soon.
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| Being prepared for the jump |
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| A few people asked me, how come I was not afraid to do it... The truth is, I was afraid! |
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| Right before leaving Macau, we wanted to go to a casino, to say goodbye... |
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| As you can see, these photos were taken in the toilet - because that is the only place nobody was watching me (taking photos in the casino is strictly forbidden) |
The easiest way to get to Hong Kong from Macau is a ferry. Those are convenient, comfortable and relatively inexpensive. I am not a big fan of boats – I have no idea why I consider them less safe than planes. Our ferry got caught by such a strong storm, that I was more terrified than during the bungee jump.
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| Goodbye, Macau |
We reached Hong Kong safe and sound, and I was happy to stand on firm ground again. As this was my second time there, I already knew the best places to shop. Citycall is my favourite chain retail store for camera equipment. No, I did not go to bargain to the dodgy street shops with blinking famous brand name signs on them. My previous experience in Hong Kong taught me that shopping in such places is a very tiring process, which you should only undergo if you have a spare few days in the city and know exactly what you want. Honestly, those shops are not that much cheaper than the big ones anyway. For example, one of my camera lenses in a “dodgy shop” costs 300-400 Euros, which you could bargain down to 250-300 Euros; in Citycall I paid 300 Euros without bargaining, while in Europe the same lens costs 600 – 700 Euros.
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| A demonstration in Hong Kong - why do I think we would never see this in China? |
Apart from electronics, I also bought some clothes, accessories, make up… All tax-free, Hong Kong is a true shopping paradise!
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| Streets of Hong Kong |
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| Funky Korean boutique |
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| In the pet market |
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| Fishy fishy! Not for eating |
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| Huh... Chinese store names still confuse me |
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| Bird market! |
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| Aw look at this pretty one! |
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| African Grey, oh, I love parrots |
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| Food market - you could smell these durians from afar... |
The next thing I wanted to do in Hong Kong is experience the infamous girls’ night out. All Wednesdays, all clubs and bars in Hong Kong, are free for girls to enter and they even give them certain drinks for free too! I have to say, this was quite a different traveling experience…
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| The tram to Victoria Peak |
I did not visit the Giant Buddha this time, as I had already seen it before. If you remember, I wrote about it before in my Lithuanian blog which you can read here. Instead, I visited another must-see of Hong Kong – the Victoria Peak. This is the point where all the photographers go to take panoramic pictures of Hong Kong’s skyscrapers from above. Getting to the peak is an exciting process, as you have to take a very steep tram all the way up the hill. By the way, combined tram + Madame Tussauds wax figure museum’s tickets were available too. An interesting combination if you really want to have a photo of you with a Chinese movie star made from wax…
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| The view from Victoria Peak |
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| This is how trams used to look like |
After a week of quality shopping and relaxation time in the islands of Macau and Hong Kong, it was time for me to start my real trip. I crossed China’s border with a bus that took me right to Shenzhen’s airport.
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| Hong Kong at night |
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| Hong Kong panorama |
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Next time, read about my adventures in Kunming and Lijiang.
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