Macau

During the holiday I made a trek to Macau. Macau is a series of islands just about 1 1/2 hour ferry ride from where I'm at in Shenzen. Until 1999 Macau was controlled by Portugal. It was passed over to China control and the "one country, two systems" philosophy that also is how Hong Kong is run. Due to the Portugal influence you have multiple languages prevalent including: Portugese, Cantonese as well as English.

What I loved about Macau is the juxtaposition of the architecture. In much of Macau you see very old buildings and styles. However with the massive growth of the gambling industry you now also see brand new treasures, very similar to Las Vegas.


Below - a photo of a street side entry into what appears to be a Buddhist temple of some sort. It was absolutely gorgeous inside!
And now the new...growth just like Las Vegas. Here you see the Wynn on the left and MGM on the right. In addition on the other side of town are other hotels like the Venetian. The Venetian just opened and it boasts the largest casino gambling floor in the world!