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A mad dash in Christmas (2) - Macau 馬不停蹄的聖誕(2)——澳門

On New Year’s Day my friend took us on another day trip to Macau. Even though it’s pretty customary to visit Macau whenever I’m back in Hong Kong, there’s still a good part of Macau that I’ve never set foot upon. 元旦日,我的朋友兼領隊安排澳門一日遊。雖說差不多每次回港都會到澳門逛逛,但其實有很多地方我都從沒認真看過。 We went directly to Taipa to start our tour around Macau. I remember a long time ago that Taipa was one of the two outlying islands of Macau, the other being Coloane. But these days the two islands become joined after reclamation, and the newly created land becomes home to a cluster of brand new casinos and hotels. Our first stop is the Venetian Resort Hotel, which is one of those casinos located on this so-called Cotai Strip. After a brief walk through the hotel, we went into the town centre of Taipa (Vila da Taipa) to look for a restaurant serving local style Portuguese cuisine, but we were out of luck as the shop has already folded. We could only go on to find another one. 我們這次出發時直往氹仔,祇記得很久之前氹仔和路環仍是分開兩個島,但現在因填海而連成一整片,填海區...

A mad dash in Christmas (1) - Shenzhen 馬不停蹄的聖誕(1)——深圳

Over Christmas and New Year the whole workplace is shut for holiday, and since I managed to find some low-cost flights, I decided to go for a short break in Hong Kong for a week and a half. My friend who was hosting me has also organised day trips to Shenzhen (27th December) and Macau (1st January). Let me write about the Shenzhen trip first. 聖誕新年有個多星期假期,趁研究所全體休假和有便宜機票之便,溜到香港玩玩,東道主又安排了深圳一日遊(12月27日)和澳門一日遊(1月1日),現在先寫寫深圳吧。 The nine of us in the group crossed into the mainland through the Lok Ma Chau checkpoint, and we started our Shenzhen tour from the Futian district. 我們一行九人在上水集合後,經落馬州過關,先在福田區逛逛。 The fields around Lok Ma Chau 落馬州一帶的農田 We took Metro Line 4 to Huizhan Zhongxin (Exhibition Centre) to find a place for lunch. I know very well how much Shenzhen has developed over these years, so I was rather shocked as I saw a row of derelict buildings whose demolition works had obviously halted for no apparent reason, as well as a landfill full of unwanted construction material. These eyesore...