Macau - What is Real?

Macau, like Las Vegas or Disneyland (there is one in HK) offers yet another way of seeing. I discussed the difference between touring and traveling, in a previous installment about Thailand. In addition, there is a third possibility, that is to visit a contrived resort/theme park, and to be sucked into the space-time continuum of nowhere. While these sites are often done with great taste, with detailed reproduction, they shouldn't be confused with travel. Many such warps in the continuum exist (kudo's to Doc of "Back to the Future"). Modern day shopping malls are often so similar from one place to the next, that there is little or no way of knowing where you are unless you leave. This homogenization of the upscale shopping experience struck me in Hong Kong where except for the Chinese characters on some signs, one could be anywhere else in the world. The shops sport such names as Bose, Godiva, Chanel, Versace, Gucci etc. These HK malls are entered be exiting any large subway station where you end up at the mall rather than the street. That higher level of contrivance, the theme park casino, is where in addition to the gaming floor there is an upscale thematic mall that reproduces a famous site that you would want to visit. While Macau can't yet compete with Las Vegas, it has casinos in large measure. The Chinese have always loved to gamble.

Macau is the only place in China where casino gambling is allowed. It is permitted because it already existed under Portuguese rule when the territory reverted to China in 1999. We visited the Venetian Hotel and Casino the evening of our stay. Many of the same casinos in Las Vegas have set up shop in Macau. This was my third trip to Venice: the first time in Italy, the second in Las Vegas and this time in Macau. I was so familiar with the layout that I was able to tell Judy where the gelati stand would be located. I was wrong, however, it was not gelati but Hagen Daz ice cream. The Grand Canal and St Marks Square were ringed with shops selling the usual designer labeled goods and expensive restaurants catering to international tastes. We found a gelati stand, an easy stroll along the canal and shared one while sitting at a Brazilian Churrosco (meat on a spit) restaurant, served water by a Phillippino, overlooking the Gand Canal of Venice, in a city in China that looked more Mediterranean than Chinese.

So, what is genuine and what is not? I'm sure I have a categorical answer to this question. I've read that the designer goods created by the fashion centers of the US and Europe, made in China and sold the world over is available cheaply in China as knockoffs. Apparently, the Chinese factories continue producing the designer goods in excess of the designer's needs and then freelance them. This allows the workers to have continued employment after the orders have been filled and the owners to profit. These additional goods, do not have the same quality control or labeling as the designers original, but are quite similar to what is being sold by the fancy Fifth Avenue shops in New York or on the Champs Elysee in Paris. Are these items counterfeit or genuine? I'm sure I don't know but they are supposed to be on sale in Szenzhen across the border from Hong Kong. Such pirated production also provides the social benefit of cheaper goods for consumers and additional employment for the workers. In the current state of the world economy both are welcomed.

Another very real encounter was with 4 twenty year old Chinese women at the Antique House Museum in Taipa. Helen, Sheila, Tina, Irene were living in Macau studying business. Their program was taught in English and so communication was easy with them. We talked about our lives, where we were heading, our family, language, life in Macau etc. They were from Beijing, Guilin (where we are headed) and Guandong (north of HK and Macau). They were surprised that we paid for our childrens' education and let them study whatever they want. They were surprised that we were traveling by ourselves through China and that Judy speaks Mandarin. They were very interested in visiting the US but realistically realized that it would not be possible for many years. When we began to say good-bye, they asked if we could exchange email addresses and we invited them to visit us if they were ever near Boston. We took group photos and went on our ways. We visited the fishing village in the south of Taipa in the drizzle and fog and then headed back to HK.