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Macau

Macau is a place of contrasts. Macau, or Macao as it was better known when it was a Portuguese colony, is officially the Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China. Like its many names, the SAR is filled with more people, culture, and history than its small size suggests. Sitting on just 29.5 square kilometers (11.39 sq. miles) of land, some of it reclaimed from the Pearl River Delta, Macau has a population of more than 600,000 with a density of more than 18,500 people per square kilometer (48,000 per square mile). Although crowded, its denseness does not seem so much from its small footprint as from its rich and colorful history. The former colony still retains much of its Portuguese and indigenous Cantonese character but has grown more Chinese since its return to China in 1999. As the country’s only destination for legalized gambling, a Portuguese legacy dating back to the 1850s, Macau has become a tourist draw with its growing array of gambling and Las Vegas-style entertainment and conference venues. Nestled amid the grand casinos are neighborhoods steeped in colonial and traditional Chinese heritage. Like its sister across the delta in Hong Kong, Macau is worth highlighting as a semi-autonomous region because of its unique character and heritage.

More About Macau

Top Ten Things to Savor in Macau
A Skyline View of Macau (Video)
The Historic Center of Macau
“The House of Dancing Water” Show in Macau
Other articles

Ruin of St. Paul’s Cathedral

Senado Square

A Skyline View of Macau

Taipu Village at Night

Auckland Sky Tower, New Zealand

We spent much of the afternoon on our first day in New Zealand at the Auckland Sky Tower. The tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere rises 328-meters (1,076 feet) over the Auckland skyline. It’s a concrete and composite structure built for Harrah’s Entertainment as part of the SKYCITY casino and event center owned by New Zealand-based SKYCITY Entertainment Group. Although the tower opened in August 1997 to some concern over its potential impact as part of the city’s first (and still only) casino, it has since become a fixture in Auckland.

Aesthetically spartan with a concrete gray façade and conventional design, the tower has nonetheless become an iconic symbol of Auckland. It’s beautiful at night lit up by flood lights with a rotating rainbow of colors.

Visitors enter through the SKYCITY lobby and queue up for the glass elevators that take them up to the Observation Deck on the 51st floor. When we visited at Christmastime, the foyer was bedecked with festive Yuletide decorations and a giant Christmas tree. It was one of the few times during our summer trip Down Under that we were reminded of the holiday.

Riding the elevator to the Sky Tower’s Observation Deck is an adventure in and of itself with the elevator floor made of steel and transparent glass. It’s a long way down but a lot of fun to watch the elevator shaft pass underneath like a theme park ride. For those who are acrophobic, not so much. The Observation Deck’s perimeter with some of the best views of Auckland also has transparent glass underfoot, so watch out!

New Zealand’s only revolving restaurant, Orbit, lies two floors higher, and on the top floor is the SkyDeck, where intrepid visitors can walk on the SkyWalk around the pergola or take the SkyJump, a one-way, bunjee-jump like trip down the tower. We weren’t brave enough to go for it but enjoyed watching others take the plunge.

Perhaps most rewarding are the incredible views of the city from the Auckland Sky Tower. It’s so high that one can see beyond the city limits. If you’re only in Auckland for a short time at the start or end of your trip to New Zealand, the Sky Tower is a great way to see it all.

More About New Zealand

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Argentina

From the Atlantic Ocean to the top of the Andes Mountains, Argentina is a bridge between the Old and New Worlds. Innately European but distinctly Latin American, the country is a melding of cultural influences brought by the Spaniards and western immigrants and a unique geographic backdrop that offers some of earth’s most stunning scenes. Renown Argentine writer Ernesto Sabato described his homeland thus: “Because of our European roots, we deeply link the nation with the enduring values of the Old World; because of our condition of Americans we link ourselves to the rest of the continent.” One cannot sit drinking a glass of Mendoza wine in the foothills of the Andes or enjoying parrilla (grill) in the shadow of the cruise ships bound for Antarctica departing from Tierra del Fuego without thinking of Europe and the Americas. Argentines are rightly proud of their country and culture that invite visitors to indulge in and savor.

More About Argentina

Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires

Penguin and Seal Colony in the Beagle Channel, Tierra del Fuego

Llao Llao Resort and Nahuel Huapi Lake near San Carlos de Bariloche

Perito Moreno Glacier in Los Glacieres National Park