Must visit the Macau Museum.

The Macao Museum is located on the slope of the Guia Hill Park, where some historical relics with Macao characteristics are gathered. Due to Macao's certain Portuguese-style history, most people can feel the unique exotic style besides the heavy history of Macao. The Macao Museum is a museum that showcases the history and diverse culture of Macao. The exhibits in the museum showcase the rich and profound historical and cultural connotations of Macao, displaying the historical changes of Macao over hundreds of years, and telling the story of residents from different countries and cultural backgrounds living together peacefully in Macao. The Macao Museum is located on the historic site of the Fortress of St. Paul's in the center of Macao. It was designed by Portuguese architect Carlos Marreiros and opened on April 18, 1998. From the nationality of this chief designer, it is not difficult to see that Macao is a city that integrates Eastern and Western cultural characteristics. The Macao Museum has three floors of exhibition halls for visitors to explore, each with its own theme. The first floor exhibition area is the exhibition of the original civilization of Macau. This layer mainly introduces the origin of Macau, and the prosperity of this important international trading port from the Neolithic period to the mid-17th century. It was the golden period of Macau. The most prominent exhibit on the first floor is the 1:5 scale model of a ship's cabin. From the early Ming Dynasty to the mid-Ming Dynasty, the imperial court implemented the "Maritime Ban" policy, suspending private foreign trade. Therefore, Macau was an important transit port for Chinese ceramic exports during the Ming Dynasty. As a transportation tool, ships were crucial, and some of their decorations were also worth studying. This model clearly shows the distribution of goods and hardware facilities in the cargo hold. Tea and silk are placed in the upper-middle deck, porcelain in the lower-middle deck, and some stones in the bottom deck. Many people are curious why stones are placed at the bottom. Are they also goods traded? In fact, these stones are called "ballast stones". When the cargo is not full, the weight of the ship itself is not enough to overcome the strong winds and waves at sea. In order to cope with the wind and waves, these stones are used to stabilize the cabin, so that the ship can travel smoothly on the sea. When the cargo is full, the ballast will be thrown on the roadside. Macanese people think these stones are beautiful, so they feel it's a waste to throw them away. Therefore, they decided to break them and use them to repair the road. It is said that the stone road around the council hall was made by crushing ballast stones. Most of the goods transported were European rarities and favorites such as tea, porcelain, and silk products. Chinese porcelain not only includes classic blue and white porcelain like our Qinghua Liuting pattern porcelain, but also export porcelain that caters to foreign tastes in order to expand overseas markets. The most famous one is Clark porcelain, which has patterns of flowers, birds, landscapes, and figures. These exported porcelain often have classic Christian patterns and designs, which are very popular among Europeans. The second floor exhibition area of the Macao Museum showcases Macao's folk art and traditional culture. It displays cultural themes that have brought richness and uniqueness to Macao's social and cultural scene, and these themes are derived from Macao's old culture. For example, there are traditional festivals and daily customs in Macau, as well as traditional handicrafts and typical industries. The most prominent feature on the second floor is the row of buildings that blend Eastern and Western characteristics. These buildings blend traditional Chinese architectural style, subtropical features, and designs derived from the European Neoclassical movement, resulting in a unique architectural style. The entire Macau Museum has gained a bit of grandeur. The museums in Macau use advanced technologies such as 3D, light, sound, and images, as well as replicas and models to enhance their displays. The combination of ancient civilization and modern civilization gives people a feeling of being in a different world. This new technology is particularly widely used in the second floor exhibition area. For example, the old firecracker factory is reduced and replicated, and the old firecracker production process is displayed clearly, with many buttons that, when pressed, produce the sound of firecrackers exploding, making it seem as if you are there. Third floor exhibition area showcases the contemporary characteristics of Macau, which is the last floor of the museum. It mainly introduces various social conditions and livelihoods of contemporary Macau, while also introducing literary works and artworks with Macau as the theme. The most impressive thing to me is some of the wedding customs in Macau. The long-term residents of Macau are mainly Chinese, as well as Portuguese natives, Filipinos and other foreigners. In earlier years, regardless of wealth, Chinese grooms in Macau would hold a "shangtou" ceremony on the eve of their wedding. Foreigners who believe in Catholicism will hold their weddings in churches. However, the characteristic of the entire city of Macau is the mixture of Chinese and Western cultures. Although the location of the wedding is mostly fixed, Macanese weddings also incorporate both Chinese and Western elements, with couples both getting married in a church and performing traditional Chinese wedding ceremonies. Macau brides wear both wedding dresses and traditional Chinese qipaos. The collision and integration of different races and customs of Chinese, Portuguese and foreign residents have endowed Macau with a more diverse and profound culture. It is this complex population composition that makes Macau's wedding customs diverse. The biggest feature of the entire Macau Museum is the cultural treasures produced by the collision and integration of Eastern and Western cultures, which not only preserves rich material cultural heritage, but also embodies the enduring spirit of Chinese culture. The surrounding Ruins of St. Paul's, Fortaleza do Monte, Mandarin's House, Macao Museum and many other famous historical sites form a holy land of cultural heritage, which is an excellent place for learning, entertainment and sightseeing.