[DIARIES] 20141225 Day 9 Macau

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Day 9 - 25 Dec 2014 (Chrismas and I'm heading home!!)



Last day of my trip and it's Christmas day today. I still have plenty of time before checking out and head home via Macau. So I decided to go for a quick ground tour around ZhuHai since I'm here anyway. A quick glance at the Baidu map I noticed a park nearby, which is the New Yuan Ming Palace. Yuan Ming Palace is actually the emperor's palace during the Qing dynasty with the actual one located at Beijing. The one here is actually a smaller replica of the actual one in Beijing. I guessed it's not a bad idea to visit it since it's quite near to where I stay. Other landmarks suggested by the hotel staff were too far away. I packed my luggage and left it at the hotel counter after I check out.

I took a cab after my breakfast but the weather turned bad right away and rain starts falling. In contrast to other theme parks I have been to, this New Yuan Ming Palace in ZhuHai is rather quiet and empty. The building conditions are run down and lack of maintenance. I was quite surprise that the entrance is free as I do noticed some ticket machines installed. Perhaps the low volume of visitors has forced the owner to open to public for free to boost popularity and try to make back the money some where.


I waited for some time for the rain to subside before I finally can make a move to visit around. This is the replica of the emperor's throne, where the Qing emperor will be sitting here while doing his 听政.


The roof design is also similar to what we always see in the movies.


There were many exhibitions halls around the park compound, including the one above where different kind of Qing soldier uniforms were displayed. Other exhibits includes pottery, apparels and tools used during the Qing dynasty.


There's a big lake in the middle of the park. The park is much larger than I thought and I guessed I don't have the time to visit everything in detail. I decided to do a quick walk through around the lake only without much detour before I leave.


One side of the park is planted with many kinds of camellia. Despite the poor maintenance, the flowers and trees are pretty well taken care of.


At one side of the park there is a replica of the Great Wall of China. I wonder how detail they have copied it hence I took a short detour up to have a glimpse.


At the top of the fortress, the "Great Wall" leads me to what it seems to be eternity without a clue on how long more I need to walk. So I just gave up and head back down the hill to continue my journey around the lake.


There are some food stalls within the park compound but what I saw was just empty seats with bored looking stall keepers. There are many different halls around, like the one in the picture above. There's much more to explore and it will be more interesting if I know the history behind all these buildings.


There is a water theme park but is obviously closed for ages from the rust observed. There's also another area which is known as the European Park but is also abandoned.


I kissed the New Yuan Ming Palace goodbye after a few hours spent there. I went back to the hotel to collect my luggage before I head to GongBei immigration check point again. 


The weather is still unforgiving with the light drizzle showering the cold winter days.


After crossing the China-Macau border, I took the Venetian bus back to the Venetian Casino. There is a baggage drop off service counter that is free of charge. I left my luggage with them and proceed to the shopping complex of the Venetian.


I was unable to get a chance to try out the Portuguese egg tart and the one I wanted to try was located far away. Fortunately they have a branch in the Venetian and it is non other than the famous Lord Stow's Portuguese egg tart. If you are just looking for the egg tart only you can just buy it over this little counter right opposite their outlet.


However, if you wanted to try out other items in their cafe, then prepared to join the queue together with the rest. Maybe there's more crowd today due to Christmas Day, not too sure.


Finally get hold of the holy Portuguese egg tart. Despite not having it directly from the original shop, I believe (strongly believe) that the one in Venetian outlet should be identical to the original shop. However, no joke, the egg tart is really awesome and the ones I had in Malaysia is miles apart with the crispy pastry and fluffy custard.


I spent the rest of my time exploring the majestic design of the casino building. I noticed something funny whereby Uniqlo in Macau is treated like a branded shop where by the staff limits the number of visitors at any one time while the rest have to queue outside to wait for their turn. Last recall that Uniqlo brand was never that premium anyway.


I collect my luggage from the baggage area and board the bus to the Macau Airport. Macau Airport is a relatively small airport, with size similar to our old LCCT.


 It was very tiring due to the tight schedule but at the same time it is a very fruitful trip where I was exposed to many things that I was unaware of. Many unexpected things along the journey and I felt that I have learned a lot.

Given opportunity, I will definitely travel more, especially to places that are not so popular among us.

I guessed it is time for me to end this 9 days chapter of my Hong Kong-China-Macau trip.

-- the End --

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