A city that was once a quiet Portuguese colony made up of two islands is now considered the most densely populated place in the world. It occupies an area of 33sq/km and has a living population of 700,000 as well as 32 million annual visitors – meaning tourists actually outnumber locals by 45 to 1.
The city was transformed by Stanley Ho, who is known as “The Godfather of Gambling”. Having fled the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, he arrived in the nearby city in 1941 at the age of 19.
With little more than the clothes on his back, Mr Ho transformed Macau into a vibrant yet contradictory city. Despite gambling being illegal in China, Macau now has a gaming industry seven times bigger than Las Vegas.
Mr Ho began by quietly trading kerosine and military supplies before gaining gambling rights for the region in 1962. This allowed him to build the Casino Lisboa which opened in 1970.
The gambling industry then started to grow in Macau which brought in millions in taxes. The economy boomed which led to developments increasing the size of the city, which is two thirds on water, from 11.6sq/km to 33sq/km.
Macau was handed back to China from Portugal in 1999 before international gambling giants such as Wynn and Sands quickly moved in in 2002. However, Mr Ho, who fathered 17 children with four different woman, continued his own empire and built the $385 million Grand Lisboa which dominates the city skyline.
He retired in 2018 before passing away in 2020 at the age of 98 with an estimated net worth of $14.9 billion. However, his legacy lives on in Macau and helps to attract 32 million people to the city every year.
More people now live in Macau per square kilometre than anywhere else in the world. The New Macau Urban Zone is a project that will add a further 7.3 square kilometres to the bustling city.
Some of this land will be used for hotels while most of it will be spent on affordable housing developments for local people. It has been reiterated that the new land is for the people of Macau and not its visitors.
