Hey dear community, I hope you are all doing well and you have a great start to the new weekend! Also in my new post I would like to share something about an experience I made while traveling and hope you like my post.
During my time in China I was able to get to know many interesting cities and I not only spent time on the mainland, but also visited special administrative regions such as Macau or Hong Kong. From Hong Kong it took me about an hour to Macau and here there are different options such as taking the bus or the ferry and I took the ferry which was there in just over an hour and cost about 170 Hong Kong dollars but the ticket for the return trip also has to be bought separately and it's positive that the ships also go back in the evening. Depending on the weather, some people might have problems and people who get seasick quickly would probably better take the bus because it can get uncomfortable, but fortunately I had no problems in that respect. A passport is required for entry to Macau but thats normal when entering a new special administrative region and it should also be noted that there is its own currency, but you can also easily pay with Hong Kong dollars or alternatively credit cards are accepted in many places.
The history of Macau is extremely interesting and once it was a Portuguese colony and much of it can still be admired when someone strolls through the city and people could think in some areas that they are in Europe. Towards the end of the 20th century, the country was officially returned to China, but the Portuguese language is still widely used here. Even if the country is extremely small, live for the area relatively many people here and with almost 700000 people it's very densely populated and I also found it positive that it's extremely clean here and I noticed what the people here have for a good quality of life. As in other special administrative zones, there are some laws here that can be particularly lucrative for entrepreneurs and these include lower taxes and, among other things, residents do not have to pay income tax here. It's also great to see how influences from traditional China merge with the Portuguese and here there are some important cultural highlights to discover and the climate is also a bit different.
Even though it's part of China, it can be described as rather completely independent because here there is its own government or legal system and also are in Macau own security forces working and it differs enormously from the mainland. Another interesting thing is that it's a free trade zone and here there are probably some of the best trade laws on a global level. Even when it comes to religion, it's extremely diverse and here both Christian festivals are celebrated as well as Chinese and here also churches can be found. Macau is also world famous for the casinos or the extravagant hotels, but I didn't have that much time here to get a more accurate picture about it, but many come here for this reason. I made a day trip from Hong Kong and would say that this is enough time to get to know the most important facets and I saw things like the A-ma Temple, Monte Fort, Mandarin House, Macau Museum and the Tower. I also visited one church as well as the Senado Square which is known for Portuguese architecture and I probably managed to visit a lot on the day and can only recommend to every visitor from Hong Kong to make a trip here and best to start in the morning to see as much as possible.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you could learn something new and like my post! I captured these pictures with my Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm lens and iPhone 16.