2 Best Sights in Macau, China

From dawn to dusk, Macau’s most popular park comes alive with tai chi practitioners, palm readers, couples, students, and men locked in Chinese chess battles under banyan trees. Developed in the 18th century, the gardens were built on the estate once occupied by the chairman of the British East India Company. When the British moved out in 1835, the land’s new Portuguese owners built a grotto around the country’s greatest poet, Luís de Camões, who spent years in exile in Macau. Now the park’s most iconic spot, Camões Grotto shelters a bronze bust of the poet within a rocky niche, while a bronze sculpture at the entrance symbolizes Portugal and China’s historic ties. Nearby, Casa Garden, a smaller park that now houses the Orient Foundation, features landscaped grounds, a brick pathway, and a lily-filled pond.

These beautiful gardens were built in the 19th century by a Chinese merchant named Lou Kau, who considered every last detail, from the rock formations and angle of the sunlight to the placement of the ponds and pavilions. The balanced landscapes bear the hallmark of Suzhou’s gardening style. The government took possession and restored the grounds in the mid-1970s, opening up this space for tranquil walks among delicate flowering bushes framed by bamboo groves. A large auditorium frequently hosts concerts and other events, most notably recitals during the annual Macau International Music Festival. Adjacent to the gardens, a yellow, European-style building houses the Macau Tea Culture House, a small museum with exhibits on Chinese tea culture.