Another Camoes Park, Taipa

I have to hand it to Luis Vaz De Camoes, not only was he a national hero in Portugal, he also managed to get not just one but, two parks dedicated to him in Macau.

The particular park I am talking about now is the one in Taipa which sits right next door to my last entry – Our lady of Carmel Church. It shares the same pleasant prominant setting, and thus vantage point, as the church and despite the development, still affords a decent vista from its central highpoint (though it’s not that high) which also houses a full body sculpture of the man in requisite poetic pose.

Feel free to comment on a suitable caption for the above pose…

Compared to its sister park on the Macanese peninsular, this one is siginficantly smaller, but despite the size limit, this place certainly packs in the peace and serenity in big doses. It’s a sleepy kind of place, empty when we were there despite the neighbouring wedding ceremony, and covered with mature trees and bushes as well as well kept flower beds and even some Chinese-style pavilions and landscaped pathways.

It even manages to fit in a small childrens’ playground and and several exercise stations (collectively referred to as “big adult’s playground”).

Running down the side of the park is a road which leads down to the “Praia Avenue” Macanese House display. I will cover them in the next entry, but in the meantime, back to that bout of deja-vu I was telling you about in the last post.

The sense was strong and no wonder. Back in 1988, when I was a mere sixth former studying for some A-Levels (ee by ‘eck, they were much harder in my day etc etc) I bought a Jackie Chan film on VHS video. Said video was Jackie Chan’s “Project A” – a rip-roaring pirate adventure in the vogue of Burt Lancaster’s “Crimson Pirate” (another favourite). I must have watched that film on at least ***embarrassingly-high number censored*** occasions and so it most of it has been burned indelibly into my subconscious.

There is a scene in the film, it’s a long chase that occurs over the best part of 20 minutes and culminates in the much feted clock tower fall. Part of it involves Jackie leading his poor knackered girlfriend over many obstacles and barriers to escape the bike pedalling bad guys. Well, guess what…yes, of course. Part of this scene was filmed here. I have since gone back and watched the film again and can also confirm there is a scene with the Carmel Church and its stone cross there too.

Anyway, here is the road 2009 and a screen grab from the film so you can compare.

Above, the sloped road as of 2009

This shot is taken from Project A

As you can see, quite a lot has changed since Project A was filmed there back in 1983. The road has been widened and given a pavement of sorts. Plus the building on the left (in the film still) has been demolished. But look carefully at the top of the road on both photos and you will see the replica Taipa library, or at least the back of it, and the Carmel Church behind that. Incidentally, the Camoes park is on the right, at the top of the sloped wall being climbed by JC.

So there you go, a bit of Jackie Chan film trivia…

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