So this past November a coworker of mine and his wife graciously invited me and some of my friends to go to Macau with them. Macau belonged to Portugal, but like Hong Kong, was given back to China in 1999. It is also under the “one China two systems” policy that Hong Kong is, which gives it some autonomy. The Portugal influence is easily seen from the streets, the buildings, the food…pretty much it permeates throughout every aspect of the culture.

Other than the Portugal influence one needs to also recognize that it legal to gamble here, which gives way to casinos, making it the Vegas of China. The other fact it is the most heavily densely populated city on Earth with over 50,000 people every square mile. This is quite evident walking through certain areas where you felt pushed up against everyone while going down a walking street (a street that is entirely made for walking). However other parts did not feel crowded at all, and traffic was not that bad. Cars would often stop to let you cross the road (something they do not do in mainland China). The food was fantastic too. We went stopped to eat every couple hours and had a sampling of several dishes before finishing the night at an international food festival.  The city felt extremely safe, we would often walk down empty alleys just to see what was there and never did I feel unsafe when doing so. This is a city I am looking forward to returning to in the future.