The sun slides below the horizon, the sky deepens to a rich azure, and our gondolier breaks into song as he poles us past a stately clock tower rising over the canal and the historic palaces lining its shores. Venice, definitely. Just not Italy.
This eerily exact re-creation is, in fact, half a world away, at the $2.4 billion Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel (suites from $1,385; 011-853-2882-8888; venetianmacao.com), on China's southeastern coast. Modeled on the Las Vegas casino of the same name, it is large and exceptionally lucrative, like seemingly everything in Macau these days. Hong Kong's once sleepy sister city — composed of two islands, Taipa and Colôane; a tiny mainland peninsula; and the reclaimed area of Cotai — has awakened from centuries of decline to become Asia's fastest-growing tourist destination.
The site of a Portuguese settlement in 1557, Macau was the first European outpost in the Far East and a vital port for trade between China and the West. But after Hong Kong, with its superior deepwater harbor, was ceded to Britain, in 1841, Macau fell into a sort of southern European languor. Although gambling was introduced in 1847, in the ensuing years the colony remained largely unchanged, a remote piece of Iberia where ivy-covered ocher, peach and lime green colonial mansions stood alongside cobblestoned lanes.
Throughout the 20th century, visitors to Macau were primarily day-trippers from Hong Kong, which is an hour away by ferry. Then, in 1999, Macau was returned to China; in 2002, Wynn Resorts, MGM Grand Paradise and Las Vegas Sands snapped up newly available gaming concessions. In 2006, the region's casinos raked in nearly $7 billion, topping Vegas's take by half a billion. And in welcoming 22 million visitors that year, Macau became almost as popular as Hong Kong. The Venetian, Macau's largest casino by far, debuted last summer with 3,000 suites and 1 million square feet of retail space. But it's only the first tenant on the Cotai Strip, a new causeway consisting of less than a mile of swampland that connects the two islands. By next year, China's answer to the Vegas Strip will claim a roll call of the world's finest hotels: Raffles, Four Seasons, Hyatt, Shangri-La, St. Regis, Conrad, Fairmont and more. There will also be museums, amusement parks, concert halls, convention centers and, of course, more casinos, including a gambling hall at the nearby City of Dreams, an underwater resort.
Yet for all its development, Macau remains a weekend destination: a relaxing splurge for American and European travelers after a long tour of mainland China or a handy base for exploring Hong Kong. The main sights are clustered together and can be seen in a day or two. Visitors can wander narrow lanes to discover old-world churches and cemeteries; neighborhoods dotted with Chinese temples, tea shops and fortune-tellers encircle parks with Portuguese names. Spectacular cuisine is everywhere. Enlivened by a mélange of spices from Portugal's far-flung former colonies, an early version of fusion food is served in scores of atmospheric restaurants, like Henri's Galley (011-853-556-251) and Restaurante Fernando (011-853-882-264), a local favorite set on a deserted beach that offers huge platters of succulent pork ribs, pepper prawns and salt cod.
This artful balance between past and future, Asia and Europe, accounts for Macau's allure right now. And now is the time to go, before change arrives at breakneck speed.
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