Macao

Our arrival in Hong Kong

We arrived in Hong Kong about 7 AM to be greeted by fire boats hurling water into the air, a swarm of reporters as well as drummers with dancing dragons. Apparently, we are the first ship to dock at their new ship terminal, built at the site of the old airport. The terminal nominally won't be finished until June (though they hadn't even finished the exterior yet, so I think that is optimistic). The Queen Victoria bumped us from the current ship terminal, which turned out to be 1 block from our hotel, the Langham).
We had a 45 minute trip to the ferry terminal on Hong Kong Island and then an hour jet ferry ride to Macao. This is the former Portuguese colony, returned to China in 1999. Half a million people live in 28 square miles. Two-thirds of the land has been reclaimed from the sea.
We started our tour at the Museum of Macao, built in an old fortification. Here was the story of Macao from 1553, when the Portuguese landed in a tiny fishing village and established this as a way station for trade with China and Japan.
After our museum visit we walked to the nearby front facade of St. Paul's, destroyed three times by fire, the last in 1835. We walked through the shopping district to another church, St. Dominic's, dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima.

Father Bob and Mary in front of St. Paul's

From there we drove to A-ma temple, a Daoist temple dedicated to the Goddess of the Sea. This is located where the Portuguese first landed. Our surprise lunch was at the top of the Macao Tower, 60th floor. Here we had a great lunch buffet while watching Macao rotate beneath us. Final stop was the MGM Grand Casino, one of thirty-six in Macao. These casinos generate 6-7 times the gross receipts of Las Vegas, and have become the number one industry on the island.

Macao's version of Plymouth Rock