China’s gambling capital

Cultures collide in extraordinary ways on the tiny peninsula of Macau, says Helen Russell in the Independent. Just 60km away from Hong Kong, it was both the first and the last European colony in China, returned to the People's Republic only in 1999 after 450 years of Portuguese rule.

It is also the only place in China where gambling is permitted; and since the liberalisation of its laws in 2001, American developers have injected Las Vegas-style razzmatazz into its casinos. Its old town is "a labyrinth of cobblestone streets" centred on a beautiful baroque plaza where stalls sell yuk gon – a Cantonese pork snack – while at a casino nearby, immense plumes of water and fire pulsate in time to Abba's Money, Money, Money.

Turbojet (00852 2859 3333) runs frequent jetfoils from Hong Kong to Macau from £12pp. ·