By WENDY GOMERSALL

Glimpsing the future: Visitors to Macau can have their fortunes told at the A-Ma Temple, which is dedicated to the Taoist goddess of seafarers


Macau has been invaded by pandas; they're everywhere - clinging to the tops of lampposts, cuddled together in clumps in public squares, smiling at you from the middle of roundabouts.

The cute little black-and-white-blow-up animals couldn't look more innocuous but they act as a constant reminder of where you are in the world, and, more to the point, who lives next door.

Macau is a tiny Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China, at the mouth of the Pearl River downstream from Guangzhou (Canton) and just an hour's ferry ride from the fellow but rather more famous SAR, Hong Kong.

Developed by the Portuguese as a trading post from the 1550s, it is undergoing a startling transformation into a mini Las Vegas of the Far East.

Much like Hong Kong, Macau has been left to thrive under the 'one country, two systems' rule, with perhaps just a gentle reminder of who's boss: hence the pandas.

Central government has marked the tenth anniversary of the return of Macau to the motherland by making a gift of two real pandas - the reason for the balloon versions.

Now Macau is using precious land to build the VIPs - that’s Very Important Pandas - a state-of-the-art home to make sure the pair have long and fantastically happy lives. There's even talk of a Pandaland theme park.

With a resident population of 600,000, tiny Macau covers just 11 square miles and it's a rich blend of East and West with many cultural influences, old and new, for the tourist to explore and absorb. It's a nugget of jam-packed entertainment on Hong Kong's doorstep, yet far less frenetic. No wonder thousands of mainland Chinese cross the border for fun every day.

The Portuguese left the street names, Guila Fortress and Lighthouse and vast baroque churches and European-style buildings and squares aplenty in the historic centre.

Here you'll find the ruins of St Paul's, just the bare facade of a building dating from the early 1600s and Macau's most familiar landmark.


Cute icon: Pandas are everywhere in liberal Macau


The Chinese have contributed distinctly oriental shop-houses selling exotic medicines, glistening slabs of sticky pork belly and whole dried fish, ornate Taoist temples fragranced with burning incense and beautiful gardens where the elderly play games and practice tai chi beside ponds full of plump carp and sharp-beaked turtles.

You'll find museums and centres celebrating everything Western and Oriental, old and new, too: Macau's Grand Prix history and Portuguese wine, the Mandarin House, Dom Pedro V Theatre, the first Western-style theatre in China, the Sir Robert Ho Tung Library, even a saint's bone at St Francis Xavier Chapel, commemorating the life of the missionary who took Roman Catholicism to Japan.

Macau's restaurants are similarly eclectic, a bombardment of diverse flavours serving delicious Chinese food, Portuguese food, and Macanese - a mix of both. Popular dishes include pasties de bacalhau (cod fishcakes) and galinha Africana (spicy African chicken).

Head south to the Cotai Strip and you'll find grand Las Vegas-style resorts featuring tigers, a Tree of Prosperity featuring 24ct gold leaf, dragons and dancing fountains, and shopping malls with every designer label known to man. Ponte 16 houses the Michael Jackson Gallery with 40 items of memorabilia including the star's famous white rhinestone glove.


Then and now: From Portuguese ruins to Macau's new reputation as the Las Vegas of the East there's plenty to keep visitors entertained


All this flash, bang and wallop is to get you in the mood for the main event, a visit to one of Macau's enormous casinos. There's a Wynn, MGM Grand, Four Seasons, Sands, a peculiarly shaped Grand Lisboa and the Venetian Macau, the mirror image of the celebrated Las Vegas hotel, complete with gondoliers and Zaia, a spectacular show from Cirque Du Soleil.

There are plenty of must-do's. Pop to Lord Stow's Bakery, on Coloane, the greenest and quietest part of Macau with the most popular beaches. Founded by a British expat, the shop produces the popular pasteis de nata - egg tarts.

Have your fortune told at the A-Ma Temple, dedicated to the Taoist goddess of seafarers, and take tea in a private booth at the Cultural Club, formerly the old Tak Seng pawn shop and now a museum, shop and tea house. And sit awhile in the lovely Lou Lim Loc Chinese garden, listening to the musicians and singers who gather there just for the enjoyment of performing, perhaps.

But whatever you do, don't forget to say hello to the pandas.


Travel Facts
Rooms at the Grand Hyatt Macau cost from £125, 0845 888 1234, www.hyatt.com. Return flights from London to Hong Kong cost from £519pp, www.cathaypacific.co.uk. Turbojet ferry tickets from Hong Kong to Macau cost from £27 return, www.turbojet.com. More information: www.macautourism.gov.mo


source: dailymail