Smile: Inflight Magazine of Cebu Pacific Air

VIVA MACAU!

THE BRIGHT CASINO LIGHTS ARE ON IN THE NEW MACAU, AND NOW, IT’S ANOTHER CITY THAT DOESN’T SLEEP. ABBY TAN SEES WHAT’S HOT, HIP AND NEW WITHIN ASIA’S LAS VEGAS

Blink. Blink again. The running neon lights of flashing casinos and illuminated signs adorning every building may shock your senses. Welcome to modern Macau 2008, the only corner of China that has permitted gambling as its major industry. The city is getting bigger and better each day, emerging as Asia’s main gaming capital, the Las Vegas of the East.

Statistics tell its success story. Macau welcomed 27 million tourists in 2007, 24 million of which were from Mainland China. The rest of the visitors traveled from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. In the last four years, 37,000 hotel rooms were constructed. And since its handover in 1999, the Special Administrative Region (SAR) Macau has clearly begun to share China’s recent economic success. This is a far cry from the Macau I remember 30 years ago, when the only outstanding structure was the old Lisboa Casino and Hotel, an art deco building lit up like a wedding cake.

Back then, I enjoyed egg tarts, salty dim sum and equally salty tea as Macau, still a Portuguese colony, had no fresh water but had to depend on desalination.

Today, in the new Macau, the old Lisboa still stands proud. However, behind it also stands a new multi-storey hotel, the Grand Lisboa, which is constructed in the shape of a lotus flower and from which neon lights shoot up psychedelic dreams every few seconds.

A GAMERS’ PLAYGROUND

These days, Macau’s development is all about keeping up with Dr. Stanley Ho, Macau’s wealthiest man and the emperor of a 40-year gaming monopoly. Back then, his Lisboa casino was a city icon. When Macau became China’s SAR and Dr. Ho’s reign ended in 2004, the old man shrewdly made certain his footprints would remain.

When the new gambling licenses were issued to investors – mainly from Las Vegas and Hong Kong – Dr.
Ho made sure one daughter was a partner of MGM Grand and one son was a partner of Crown and Galaxy, both Hong Kong-based conglomerates. His son is also building another gaming resort, called aptly the City of Dreams.

The first Las Vegas casino to open in Macau was Sands, built along the peninsula’s waterfront. And its success led to the construction of the biggest wonder of the gaming world to date: the 3,000-room Venetian Macao Resort Hotel, a faithful replica of the Venetian in Las Vegas, except double its size.

In September 2006, another big player burst onto the scene. Right in front of the Lisboa, Stephen Wynn opened the 600-suite Wynn Macau, which boasts a fountain that shoots out water, music and sometimes even fire, every night.

BIGGER, BRIGHTER, BETTER

The game in Macau is one-upmanship and that’s why every gaming operator wants to show off the biggest, the best, and the most unique casino so as to attract the most visitors. At the Lisboa, Dr. Stanley Ho makes sure he displays the most expensive treasures, although in this case, great expense does not always mean tasteful.

When you enter the glass bowl structure of the Grand Lisboa, you’ll see the entrancing bronze horse head, enclosed in glass. It is one of the original seven that had gone missing in Beijing’s Summer Palace. Two men in imperial yellow tunics stand guard over it and there is a plaque at the bottom stating that Dr. Ho bought it for USD9 million (although it doesn’t say from whom) and donated it back to the government of China.

A few paces to the right of the lobby, there are two gold peacocks also encased in glass. The plaque says they were made by Gerrard of London. Across the empty lobby, you’ll see a ton of green jade carved with Buddha’s image and the epic Chinese tale of Monkey God Goes West. And beneath the spiral staircase, there is a gold dragon-shaped boat, again behind glass, and a few feet away, a gold sculpture of temples and gods.

In the main casino hall one floor down, amid the baccarat tables stands Dr. Ho’s star possession – a 218-carat, cushion-shaped, flawless, white diamond. According to legend, Dr. Ho had the gem insured for a whopping USD100 million. Still it doesn’t attract a lot of visitors. Just a few feet away I notice guests gawking at three women in skimpy, sequined bikinis and platinum-blonde wigs, performing provocative leg-ups on chairs upon a small stage.

Such cabaret-style entertainment – either a band or a troupe of showgirls at one end of each casino – is to be expected. These performances provide relief for eyes weary from too many hours of watching dice, numbers and chips through a hale of smoke. Tourists just don’t seem to be interested in the game the casino bigwigs play. They are here to play their own games and enjoy Macau’s other new attractions.

CHANNELING LAS VEGAS

From the Macau Tower’s viewing deck, you will see the casino’s dazzling skyline and the Macau peninsula already built up with tall flats and resorts. Three bridges link the peninsula to two small islands – Taipa and Coloane. A small beach used to link the two islands. That beach and seashore have since been reclaimed and renamed the Cotai Strip.

The Cotai Strip is where the most frenzied casino building takes place. All the stellar hotel brand names are here: Four Seasons, Conrad Hilton, Raffles, Shangri-la and St. Regis. The Venetian Macau is building all these hotels, and has the exclusive license to handle all their gambling and entertainment operations.

Although the casinos are exact replicas of those found in Las Vegas, they each have unique features meant to impress Asian gamblers. At the Wynn Macau, my guide Maggie points out the Tree of Prosperity. At every half-hour interval, the cupola of Chinese zodiac signs opens, a chandelier of 13,000 crystals drops, and a sphere dome on the ground – which is engraved with the western zodiac signs – parts open. A tree made of 24-carat gold leaf, gold flakes and gold glitter revolves upwards. After a while, it sinks and disappears, only to emerge half an hour later. The Tree of Prosperity is the brainchild of Steve Wynn, the property’s chairman. Its execution required the expertise of architects and engineers from three continents.

Next on Wynn’s grand plan is the 40-storey Diamond Suites, which will house his answer to Dr. Ho’s star diamond: A 231-carat pear-shaped diamond from Russia will be showcased there once the hotel opens in 2010.

Wynn may have brought in the first batch of luxury brands to his resort, namely Bulgari, Dunhill and Chanel. But it is the stately Venetian Macau Resort Hotel that’s expected to revolutionize the city’s retail business.

Occupying the same area size as that of St. Mark’s Square in Venice, the rows of boutiques offering every designer brand the world has known will be a tourist spectacle. The Venetian also has three short lagoons on which you can take a gondola ride by these boutiques and cafes, while gondoliers from Las Vegas serenade you with Italian love songs.

Apart from gambling, businessmen have marketed The Venetian as a great venue for exhibits, trade shows, concerts and sporting events. The resort-hotel has already staged NBA games, Beyonce’s concert, and a tennis exhibition between reigning champ Roger Federer and Pete Sampras. In March 2008, Celine Dion sang here. The Venetian also hosts the acrobat show Cirque de Soleil as a permanent feature, and in December 2008, the world heavyweight title bout between Roy Mercer and Derrick Rosy goes onstage. As early as February 2008, barely six months after it opened its doors, the Venetian reportedly brought in 10 million visitors.

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

Apart from its nocturnal thrills, Macau offers plenty of options for people with children. The Macau Fisherman’s Wharf, built on reclaimed land, is Macau’s first theme park. The clusters of buildings that comprise the park are influenced by the architectural design styles of New Orleans, the Caribbean, Italy, France, Holland, Spain and Portugal. There is a children’s day care center near the Babylon Casino so parents can leave their kids in the care of nannies while they go off to play roulette. The Rocks, a quiet 72-room establishment resembling turn-of-the-century Victoriana of Australia, is the only seaside boutique hotel here. At the end of the wharf is a miniature Roman amphitheater, the Gates of Xian City, and a grand 40m-high exploding volcano where children can come and learn about the earth’s tectonic shifts. The kiddie park also features flying camels and carpets. For hyperactive youths who need to release their energies, they can indulge their inner Kimi Raikkonen and make like the race champ on a Formula One racing simulator. Additionally, there’s a war games zone where a kid can slip on a fatigue uniform, don a helmet, and live out the fantasy of battling opponents – albeit imaginary enemies – in a war zone armed with plastic guns and plastic pellets. Oddly, the war games room is set up to resemble a Middle East war zone, complete with Arab graffiti and the Star of David emblazoned on the walls.

But adults can also enjoy the war games zone, which is why a lot of companies book it for corporate team-building exercises, says Carmel Yeung, assistant communications manager of Macau Legend Development Ltd, which is the company that operates the Fisherman’s Wharf and Landmark Hotel in downtown Macau. Underneath these structures, there is a mammoth convention hall that comprises the hub of its business, with the hopes of attracting companies to hold their corporate meetings, trade shows and exhibitions here. Couples’ nuptials have been identified as a viable source of income, which is why you will find a wedding planner here. Although the retail pickup is still slow, the developers are quite confident that business will pick up, so much so that they are pushing through with grand plans for a multi-storey Prague Hotel. Beyond the Fisherman’s Wharf, other attractions beckon droves of families for wholesome and oftentimes thrilling fun. A popular attraction for tourists is the Macau Tower where, for a fee, a tourist can dare to try bungy jumping or sky diving from the 61st floor at 338 meters. For the faint-hearted who want a thrill nevertheless, a guide can take you while harnessed like a paratrooper, to walk one round on the tower’s outer rim. Filipina tourist Hazel Ramos, 41, took her three daughters – aged six to 11 years old – to walk on Macau’s wild side. “My daughters squealed with delight!” she shared. And since remnants of Old Macau still stand, tourists looking for some history and culture won’t be disappointed. The old forts, churches, temples and cobbled streets are still there. Many buildings have been declared heritage sites, and these measures were taken to ensure that the old charm of Portugal – with the distinctive blue-tile claddings on its architecture – would be maintained.

THE MARKET KEEPS GROWING

Hong Kong visitors make up Macau’s second largest market, and efforts are in place to entice tourists in India and Europe to come visit the former Portuguese colony. And since Macau’s native population numbers a mere 500,000, most casino resorts have had to hire staff from overseas to meet the city’s burgeoning tourism. Employees are recruited from China, the Philippines, India and the United States, with entertainers and gondoliers moving from Las Vegas-owned resorts to Macau’s casinos.

“Hong Kong visitors used to be one-day trippers,” explains Yeung. “They came by ferry, bought almond cookies, ate lunch and dinner, lost a few dollars at the casino, and went back to Hong Kong. But with these new five-star facilities, they now decide to stay over for the weekend.”

But the mainland Chinese tourists, the city’s biggest market, come to Macau to enjoy its casinos from morning till night. That’s why the moneychangers, watch shops and jewelry stores stay open around the clock. A lucky casino winner could walk in and buy a watch or a diamond ring just like that. If he loses money at the tables, he will come back to pawn that very same watch for cash. In 2007, Macau earned a whopping USD10 billion from gambling revenues, exceeding the earnings of Las Vegas by USD3 billion.

And the dice just keeps on rolling. A sign in a souvenir shop reads: “Winning a dollar is twice sweeter than earning a dollar.” What happened to the Chinese ethic of hard work? Quite likely Confucius would disagree, but then again, things in Macau, like things in China, have changed beyond belief.