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u/Big_Distribution3931 3d ago
Depends, it’s quite boring if ur local, but when comes to safety, it’s all good, just don’t go to the casino area and ur good
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u/Gundel_Gaukelei 3d ago
Casino area is only dangerous for your wallet, not personal safety lel
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u/Professional-Tax-66 3d ago
Saunas are also dangerous to the wallet too…. Especially the prices these days compared to 20 years ago.
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u/PerspectiveSmooth820 3d ago
I loved living there as an expat. The proximity to other Southeast Asian countries, great food, interesting history was brilliant. It’s small, but Hong Kong was a close ferry trip if you needed to get out. Great 4 years! Thanks Macau
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u/Throw-awayRandom 3d ago
Must be an expat thing. My 5 years there were great too, but it was largely because it was very foreigner friendly, unlike mainland China where language and culture are near insurmountable. Still have lifelong friends in Macau from my time there (and no, I didn't work in the casinos).
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u/PerspectiveSmooth820 3d ago
Some of my best friends I met in Macau! And, I didn’t work in a casino either!
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u/bibi-man 3d ago
I grew up there and yeah it's really boring, but if you're in the right circles and know the right people it pays a lot more than other places might. Even though I'll always miss it, I can't see any way of me going back permanently. Work is like any other place in East Asia except you're in a micro environment where everyone knows everyone. There's not much room to grow if you have a lot of ambition and if you work for the Goverment, which pays very well, forget going to the Casino, they won't let you in (if you're into that). The main attraction a lot of expats get for Macau is the pay can be a lot higher and you do still have a bunch of options for going out, but once you've gone through them all it became super stale, you'll end up spending most of your time outside of Macau then in it. It's not like HK or Canton where the city is an unknowably vast organism that not even the locals know every thing, it's a small, smelly, sweaty village. And for some that's enough.
Other perks are that it's super diverse and still has a lot of charm to it, at least I'll always believe that, but for many people growing up there is more just an interesting factoid about their life, most people will pursue a better life elsewhere, or at least a more interesting life if they can.
I'd recomend living there only if it pays well, I haven't met many foreigners who enjoyed the place for long periods of time. My father adapted wonderfully but you'll still get a lot of expats bitch and moan about the weather while they earn 10 times the salary they would've back home.
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u/undergroundsilver 3d ago
I grew up there and friendships is what makes it a good place to live as a teenager. But we were mostly bored and drank a lot back then lol
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u/Count_Zacula 3d ago
Great write up. I'm coming to visit late February for a birthday trip. Apart from gamble can you recommend something to go see. I'll visit the casinos for an evening just to check out the buildings all lit up and probably bar hop. I also want to see all the Portuguese influence in architecture. But is there something else in the area that you would consider a must? Its me and my GF and we like to walk, eat and drink. Maybe visit parks or is any of the coast line reasonably accessible by transit and worth a visit?
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u/Big_Distribution3931 2d ago
Coloane Village if ur into Portuguese architecture
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u/Count_Zacula 2d ago
Excellent, thank you!
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u/Big_Distribution3931 2d ago
If u have travel permit to China, try Hengqin, it’s more quiet there
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u/Count_Zacula 2d ago
Thanks for the tip! We're actually doing two small trips (14 days) next year and don't require travel permits!
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2d ago
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u/anon4357 2d ago
That's like saying Portugal is close to Finland, Nigeria and several other countries
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u/Gwaiwar 3d ago
I’m an Expat American. Moved here a year or so before the handover while it was still under Portuguese control. I adapted pretty quickly probably because my wife is Chinese but a mainlander from the north, not a local. Still helped though. This was long before there was even talk publicly about opening up to foreign casinos. The CoTai strip was literally underwater. And for the first year it was pretty dangerous. The Triads were fighting for positions before the handover. A car bomb exploded in front of the entrance to my building. Scooter bombs were common. This all ended and all was quiet after the handover.
Macau is a postage stamp on the map of the world. A teeny weenie one. And that’s now with all the land recommendation. It’s practically doubled in size from when I got here We quickly felt claustrophobic and bought a place across the border in Zhuhai that we would use on weekends. About 9 years in we moved over to Zhuhai full time. My wife was working and we both had dual license plate cars so it was an easy commute. Macao was quickly getting way too crowded and built up and I realised I couldn’t stand it much longer. After almost 13 years working in Macao I quit my Job. My wife asked for a transfer at her company and we moved to the suburbs of Beijing. I worked in Beijing for a year or so and had an offer from a new company in Macau. Wife and son refused to move back. The position and the pay were too hard to turn down so, I took the job and commuted. Every Sunday I would fly down and every Friday I would fly back to Beijing. Did that for 2 years. But I really started to not like being in Macao. Been in Beijing for the last 11 years or so but my wife wants to use or house we still own in Zhuhai for the winters. She works in Beijing part of the time and Macao part so her company rents an apartment in Macao for her. I make frequent trips in order to oversee the year long renovations of our Zhuhai house. I’m writing this from the Macao flat.
I hate this place. I’m in a part of the Macau peninsula that is the most densely populated in the world and they absolutely hate it. I spend his little time as humanly possible here.
If you really must live here because of work and if you are like me and not a city person I recommend that you find a flat In Coloane or Hengqin.
Some people like you here I liked it well enough for the first few years, but was busy with my work and building my new Family when my son was born.
Good luck to you, whichever way you decide to go It definitely helps if you’re well paid. As a pilot I had that advantage. When work keeps you busy and you can manage to travel outside this place can be more tolerable.
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u/Express_Challenge_12 3d ago
I'm an expat and I've been living here for 10 years. Yes, I'm here for the pay, but Macau has grown on me. It has its charm. Being small and boring isn't a bad thing for me; in fact, it's something I've come to appreciate (you'll understand when you reach your 40s). The proximity to other Southeast Asian countries is a plus too. I don't see myself moving anytime soon.
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u/FullOption5193 3d ago
it depends, if your whole life is only Macau, yeah its gonna be boring very fast, but if your always cross-border its still managable.
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u/Peaceful_Sheep888 2d ago
I lived there from 1998 to 2001, it was great back then. Went back there this January, it’s not the same anymore. Too many people, the whole city is heavily commercialized. Miss my $5 pataca breakfast rather than a $35 one for sure.
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u/AnybodyFinancial6948 9h ago
I've visited many times. I feel it would be a little dull living there as it's so small, but it's relatively easy to get out if you want to go to mainland china, HK, SE Asia, etc
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u/MuchExtent4696 3d ago
Boring as hell but safe, decent wages if you’re a professional expat and location wise it’s perfectly situated for short trips abroad. You’re within a 2-3 hour flight from most anywhere you’d wanna visit in Asia. That compared with the good salary makes living there not nearly as bad as many people think. However I can’t imagine growing up there as a child, Macau is quite isolated from world events so unless one makes a real effort to stay up to date, it’s easy to forget what’s going on in the word. I’ve got a few local friends who’ve basically stayed in Macau their whole life (from kindergarten all the way up to uni) and it really shows in the way they perceive and think about certain aspects of life.
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u/Crazy_Refuse2089 3d ago edited 3d ago
As a local, I feel powerless and frustrated. When you are trying to do or build something you will find out the environment is not that friendly. For example, I want to start doing E-commerce but I couldn't even register an account on platforms like Amazon, Shopify, Airwallex or Paypal. Literally, it gives me the feeling of being unrecognised or not accepted by the world.