Macau Tower

Look up. Way up. That slender needle piercing the Macao sky is the Macau Tower, standing three hundred and thirty-eight metres tall and offering what might just be the most breathtaking panoramic view in all of southern China. The tower opened on December nineteenth, 2001, and it was the vision of Stanley Ho, the same casino magnate behind Fisherman's Wharf. Ho was inspired after visiting the Sky Tower in Auckland, New Zealand, and he hired the same architect, Gordon Moller, to design an even more ambitious structure for Macao. The result is this elegant telecommunications and observation tower that has become one of the city's most recognisable landmarks. Take the high-speed elevator up to the observation deck at two hundred and twenty-three metres, and prepare to have your breath taken away. On a clear day, the three-hundred-and-sixty-degree views stretch across the entire Macao Peninsula, over the Pearl River Delta, past the islands of Taipa and Coloane, and all the way to the mountains of mainland China. You can see the elegant sweep of the bridges connecting the peninsula to the islands, the green hilltop of Guia Fortress, the golden facade of Grand Lisboa, and the distant skyline of Zhuhai. But...