The Special Administrative Region of Macau consists of Macau, Taipa, Coloane and most recently Cotai (I will explain!). The islands of Taipa and Coloane are close together, but a bit of a distance from Macau. This meant that much of the development in the 20th century was on Macau and not the other islands.
The wealth that was generated, enabled investment in bridges. There are currently three open bridges and one soon-to-open bridge from Macau to Taipa. It now takes 7 minutes by car to get from Macau to Taipa rather than 30 minutes by ferry. This in turn has made it easier to expand commercial activities into Taipa. Just beyond that island, the water channel between Taipa and Coloane was very narrow. Using land reclamation techniques, there is now no water channel between these islands, and the new district of the Cotai Strip was created. With the famous Las Vegas Strip as inspiration, a long wide road was built with grand casinos on either side.
There is a second MGM Casino, a Wynn Palace, City of Dreams and Studio City all in easy walking distance from each other along Cotai strip.
The Lisboa Casino also has a ‘branch’ in Cotai, the Lisboa Grand Palace. It has four entrances, with different branded hotel towers. On opposite corners are the Versace Palace and the Karl Lagerfeld. The other sides are less glamoursly called the West Tower and the East Tower.
Various sources, none of which I can check the accuracy of, indicate that there is a lot of gambling along the strip, about 4 times as much as in Las Vegas. This has allowed significant investment in stunning buildings. I can imagine an architecture enthusiast enjoying wandering around. Many of the buildings are close to each other so difficult to take pictures of.
The central part of the Cotai strip consists of what I’ll call “little Europe”. Three casinos imitate three European cities: The Londoner, The Venetian and The Parisian. I will dedicate a whole post to them next week, here is a taster:
travel tales 