Macau Museum

If you only have time for one museum in Macao, make it this one. The Macau Museum sits inside the thick stone walls of Mount Fortress, which is fitting because the fortress itself is one of the most important landmarks in the city's history. Taking the escalator down into the hillside, you are literally descending into the bedrock of Macao's past. The museum opened in 1998, just one year before the handover of Macao from Portugal to China, and it was designed to tell the complete story of this extraordinary place. Three floors guide you on a journey from the very beginning, before any Europeans arrived, all the way through to the bustling, neon-lit metropolis you see today. The first floor, called Origins of Civilisation, explores how Chinese and Portuguese cultures developed independently before their paths crossed on this small peninsula in the South China Sea. You will see side-by-side displays comparing Chinese and European ceramics, religious objects, navigation instruments, and everyday household items. It is a clever way of showing that these two civilisations had far more in common than you might expect, even before they met. The second floor is where things get really interesting. It dives into...