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In just two weeks, the record-breaking Zhangjiajie bridge saw 10 times the expected number of visitors.

The casino magnate is opening his most expensive property to date in the “Las Vegas of China.”

Travel Advice From AFAR Editors: Nick Rowlands Explores Hong Kong & Beyond

AFAR chose a destination at random and sent writer Danielle Henderson on 24 hours’ notice to a casino capital with hidden charms.

How creativity and commerce have transformed a city of business into the world’s newest art capital.

Chefs bring fresh flavors from Portugal’s former colonies to Lisbon’s plates.

Young artists stake their claim to the city’s open spaces.

If you’re an architecture buff and tired of glitzy spanking new casinos, talk a walk around taipa, right at the round about of ICBC bank at Rua de tai lin, you’ll find this circular curious building.

Macao, the world’s largest gambling destination, is a one-hour ferry ride from downtown Hong Kong. A former Portuguese colony, Macao is now a semiautonomous special administrative region of China. Dozens of big brash casinos and their hotels fill Macao’s nine square miles: the Venetian, complete with gondolas and canals; the floral-themed Wynn Palace; the Hollywood-inspired Studio City; and the chic and elegant Parisian Macao with its own replica Eiffel Tower. There are more than a dozen Michelin-starred restaurants and no shortage of glitzy entertainment featuring theater, music, magic, and acrobatics.

Macau has an intoxicating mix of colonial Portuguese and Chinese influence. From the architecture and cuisine with hints of flavours of Africa and South East Asia harmoniously blends into the local Macanese community who run multi generational local diners (the cha chaan teng) and restaurants serving amazing Macaunese + Chinese food. Macau is full of surprises - old juxtaposed against new. Most recently, young locals are creating a vibrant new café culture in the city,

Pousada de Coloane is set just back from Cheoc Van Beach on the south of Coloane Island—which is fused to Taipa Island and attached to the Macau Peninsula proper by bridge. In other words, it’s the perfect place to stay for anyone who wants to explore Macau but doesn’t want to be stuck in the thick of the city. Rooms at the hotel are large, if a little run down (and with scary-looking air jets in the bathtub), and all have a small balcony with superb views over the curving beach and forested hills. If that’s not enough, the hotel has an outdoor patio with an even better view over the bay, perfect for sipping on a Macau Beer or grabbing a bite from the restaurant, which serves up Portuguese specialties. The pork spare ribs and the traditional chicken stew are both good, and if the service is a little slow, who’s in a hurry? Breakfast is included—a serviceable cooked buffet which will be cold unless you arrive right at the start—and the staff at the hotel are friendly and accommodating. Best of all is the location. It’s just a 15-minute walk (on the road) to the pretty Coloane village, or you can hop a bus from right outside the hotel. Most of them continue on from the village to the Cotai Strip and then to the Macau Peninsula itself, so although you feel isolated (in a good way), you aren’t.

Simple blank notebooks with black covers curl with moisture to create a textured wall here. Desserts are fabulous (run by a Macanese couple, one half trained in Paris at Le Cordon Bleu) as are the pastas and sandwiches.

So pawn shops have been around for a very long time here and you’ve probably seen the emblem in neon and as badges around Hong Kong and Macau – it’s actually an outline of a bat holding on to a ball. The word bat in Cantonese Fu is homophonous with the word prosperity. Tak Seng On was then Macau’s largest multi storey Pawn Shop and given it’s UNESCO heritage status as it’s the surviving unaltered structure since it was built in 1917.

This little hidden gem is probably one of Macau’s best kept secrets - a city full of glitzy casino hotels, this 20 rooms colonial era hotel built in the 1930s is staffed with hotel management students and offers respite from the crazy bling of the new Macau. Not quite like the Hong Kong equivalent of ICON hotel staffed with hotel management trainees, but a slower paced friendly environment that showcases the slower, charming side of Macau.

The younger generation of Macanese entrepreneurs have been creating a new café coffee culture in the country. Run by a lovely local Keith - the only European certified barrister in Macau, he shares his passion for coffee, changing the menu regularly, doing small tastings and selling those exclusive beans at his beautifully done up little corner shop in the old Macau quarters. Definitely worth a visit and sometimes, if you’re lucky there’s walnut cake on the menu.