MACAU - APRIL 1983

UNDER PORTUGUESE RULE!

This was the first time I went to Macau, and the first time Guida actually saw Macau, though she was born there. The point is that she left the "Territory" when she was one year old... So this was definitely a discovery trip!

It's interesting, however, to compare with some photos taken 18 years later and put together at the post "400 YEARS OF PORTUGUESE PRESENCE". In fact, the Portuguese arrived here in 1513 and obtained the right to anchor ships in Macau harbours and carry out trading activities in 1535. After clearing the area at the mouth of the Pearl River of the pirates leaded by Chang Tse Lac, they established a permanent settlement in the peninsula and two islands (Taipa and Coloane) in 1557! The Territory was handed back to China on the 20th of December, 1999.



"THE INNER PORT"


"THE BUS TO TAIPA"




"LOU LIM IEOC - The garden was built in the Suzhou style by Mr. Lou Kau, a wealthy Chinese merchant in the nineteenth century, and was inherited by his son Lou Lim Ieoc in 1906. Ruined together with the bad fortune of the owners, it was later purchased and recovered by the government, and opened to the public in 1974"


"VIEW TO THE ILHA VERDE"


"PORTAS DO CERCO - The border checkpoint with mainland China at Gongbei, Zhuhai. The new Posto Fronteiriço das Portas do Cerco (border gate building) was opened on January 15, 2004, and almost swallowed the Gate..."



"IN CHINA"


"SÃO JANUÁRIO HOSPITAL where Guida was born"


"COLOANE was linked to Taipa by a small isthmus and had the best beach in Macau. Now all the water space between Taipa and Coloane is land-filled. Macau, which had an area of 18 square km in the 50's, has now 28.2 square km!"


"CHINESE RESTAURANT with Luísa, João Francisco and the children"



"AT FRANCISCO'S - Everybody and also Jalles"


"7:00 A.M. TAI CHI at the Guia Hill"


"WATER RESERVOIR"




"LUIS DE CAMOES GARDEN - Camoes Garden is the largest and one of Macau's oldest parks. It was originally the house of a Portuguese merchant who enjoyed raising hundreds pigeons. From afar, the pavilions and buildings in the compound looked like nests. After the death of the merchant, his residence was donated to the government, commemorating the great Portuguese poet Luis de Camoes"


"CAMOES GROTTO is the most famous sight in the garden and houses the bust of the poet Luis de Camoes. Because of disturbing the court officials, he was exiled from Portugal and lived in Macau for two years, where he composed the renowned epic poem Os Lusíadas"


"REST"



"HOME - The house where Guida lived while in Macau"


"TAIPA BRIDGE - The first..."


"HOTEL LISBOA and Casino, the first step of Mr. Stanley Ho's gambling empire"




"OLD FORTRESS - Built on granite foundations in 1616 with bastions at each corner, this fort, as a part of St. Paul's Church, was once used to defend St. Paul's Church against pirates. Four cannons were set at the four corners of the fort with very wide fields of fire, covering the inner and outer harbours and the Chinese border"


"ST. PAUL'S - The structure is the remaining front wall and stairway of St. Paul's Church, one of the grandest of its kind in the Orient. Designed by an Italian Father, the construction of the church began in 1602 and was completed in 1637. Caught by fire several times, it did not resist the last fire in 1853, which destroyed nearly the whole church except the front wall!"