George Chinnery tiled pictures, Macau

I first heard about this next item on Paul French’s highly informative, entertaining and sometimes slightly depressing (he often highlights great places that are going under the wreckers ball ) China Rhyming Blog

As with many of the more obscure places in Macau, sometimes it’s hard to know exactly where they are. Thankfully Macau also has been given a (partial) Streetview treatment, but often some of the best places are hidden away up side streets and alleyways and I usually only bump into them by accident rather than design.

Kwong Hing Tai Firecracker Head Office, Macau

Continuing the firecracker theme from a couple of weeks ago, I was pleasantly surprised to come across the old (and seemingly abandoned) HQ of the Kwong Hing Tai Firecracker Manufacturing Company. It’s not necessarily the nature of the company that fascinates me this time (although as one of Macau’s previous backbone industries it certainly contains a lot of recent history) its the fact that the building is another example of great looking art deco architecture.

Iec Long Fabrica De Panchoes, Taipa

One of my favourite places to wander in Macau is around the old Taipa village area – it’s very picturesque (if you can somehow block the nearby high-rises from view) with lots of small lanes, old houses and temples. Just to the south of the village is a long thin road called Rua Fernao Mendes Pinto. The road actually separates the main village from the small hill behind that houses the Carmel Church. It is a very thin road and when it has no traffic on it looks like you have stepped back a couple of centuries – that is until another great big tourist coach comes speeding down the road.

Teatro Apollo, Macau

Following on from a couple of earlier posts about buildings along San Ma Lo (a.k.a Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro: check out earlier posts of Tak Seng On Pawn Shop, Cheung Tai Dai On Pawn Shop, Balconied shophouse) I figured it was about time for another one. This one is the Teatro Apollo, or the Apollo Theatre, which is an art deco style building that sits directly opposite the grand old post office on Senado Square.

Capitania Dos Portos in Coloane, Macau

Capitania Dos Portos is the name for the maritime authority in the various Portuguese speaking areas of the world – in this case Macau. The authority, which has it headquarters in the old Moorish Barracks, is responsible for anything marine related within the Macau S.A.R. This means underwater survey, pilot services, life saving facilities at the beache (i.e Hac Sa and Cheoc Van), search and rescue, port facilities, boat licensing and even management of the Maritime Museum, all fall under the remit of the Capitania Dos Portos. I guess the HK equivalent would be the Marine Department.

Balconied shophouses on San Ma Lo, Macau

You may have realised by now that this blog is a bit hit and miss in terms of information. The reason is sometimes I see somewhere that grabs my attention and I feel the need to share despite knowing little about the place. Thankfully sometimes I get a comment that is enlightening and it makes the post worthwhile. This is one of those occasions because right next door to the rather grand central post office on Macau’s “Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro” sits a gem of a building about which I know nothing, other than it has some great looking balconies hanging on the outside. I don’t even know how old it is.

St Michael’s Catholic Church and Cemetery, Macau

Following on from my previous post about the Protestant Chapel and Cemetery, I thought it would only be fair to have a wander around the Catholic cemetery too. Of course, it helps that this is the first time I have visited both places so they are new and fresh to me (unlike the contents of the graves) but, actually, I never realised how interesting a walk around a graveyard can be.

Former Bela Vista Hotel, Macau

Of course these days, in true Prince style,  it is the building formerly known as the Bela Vista Hotel. Its current use is as the residence of the Portuguese Consul in Macau (as opposed to the Portuguese Consulate which is further north). Unfortunately, I haven’t got any of my own snaps for this particular entry, so will rely on the screen shot from Noble House, which shows it in its former pastel green glory atop of the hill looking down onto Praia Grande.

Cheung Tai Dai On Pawnshop, Macau

Talking of Macanese pawnshops as I was a few days ago, here is another prime example of a great looking building on the same Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro (you see, I told you it would be cropping up a few times along the way). This one is slightly different in terms of architecture – seems to be more of a blend between Chinese and European styles with shop house style columns fronting a large arched facade.

Curvy Art Deco in Macau

Just to show that Macau can do curvy art deco equally as well as Hong Kong (albeit on a smaller scale), here is a snap I took during last week’s Macanese sojourn of a building very similar in style to the one I mentioned earlier at 148 Austin Road.

Morrison Chapel and Protestant Cemetery, Macau

This discreet little place, tucked away to the side of Casa Garden, is an old chapel and grounds founded in 1821. Despite its small size it has a fair amount of historical significance, revealing the fact that Macau hosted a community of non-Catholic (and non-Portuguese, in fact largely a British contingent) who used the enclave as a base prior to the founding of Hong Kong twenty years later.

Tak Seng On Casa De Penhores, Macau

For those that don’t speak Portuguese (which, by the way, includes me) a “Casa De Penhores” is a pawnshop (literally a house of pledges). The Tak Seng On is one of the most famous pawnshops in Macau and sits on the Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro next to Senado Square.

Cinema Alegria, Macau

One of the things I find most appealing about Macau, as well as the fact that it has done a good job preserving many of its old buildings, is the almost maze-like quality of the streets on the main peninsula. I’ve just returned from my 7th trip. This year’s short trip, much like one we made last year, was ostensibly to take the kids to see the fireworks competition that runs during Sep/Oct. But obviously seeing as that doesn’t happen until 9pm we have the rest of the time to wander around, get lost and find new places of interest.

Rua Dom Belchior Caneiro and Fist of Fury, Macau

As part of the ongoing Bruce Lee locations project, which you may recall has featured in my posts quite extensively over the past year or so, one of the places that has been more difficult to identify locations is Macau.

It all started a while back with a rudimentary list of Enter locations, grew to include some other spots in HK and then the Spanish Bruce Lee author, Marcos Ocaña, was put in touch with me by a mutual friend because he was putting together an article for his Spanish magazine, Bruce Lee Mania. He was attempting to put together the most complete list of HK locations that has been done so far and new that I had done a few that weren’t necessarily so well-known.

The Rosary Church, Chatham Road South

This Catholic Church, situated in one of the nicer parts of Tsim Sha Tsui (in my opinion anyway), would probably fit in quite well in Macau because its design is reminiscent of many of the pastel shaded buildings that make Macau quite special. There is a reason for that – it was funded by a Macau-born Portuguese doctor by the name of Anthony Gomes.

Taipa Village, Tai Pa (Macau)

It’s taken me a while to get here but I’m glad I did. Every time we go to Macau we try to experience something different and despite its relatively smaller size – there is still enough in Macau to keep the discerning traveler busy for many days – and that’s not including time spent in the casinos.

Penha Hill, Macau

Penha Hill (Colina De Penha in Portuguese) is one of the higher points of the Macanese peninsula,  literally and figuratively. Perched on the top is the Penha Church – a Catholic Chapel that claims a long history in Macau, dating back to 1622, although the current incarnation dates back only as far as 1837, it still just manages to predate the British takeover of HK by a few years.

Praia Avenue, Taipa

Another of the sites worth taking in when you are in Taipa village. Located around the same hillock that houses the Carmel Church and Camoes Park. Praia Avenue is a fine example of how to do heritage conservation, something that Macau just does better than Hong Kong, period.

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.

Our Lady of Carmel Church, Taipa

It’s been a while since I have been able to take a trip to Macau and do a bit more exploring, but thankfully the September fireworks competition has given us the excuse to head over for a few days and soak up the Macanese atmosphere.