Festival “Celebrating the 15th Anniversary of the Inscription of the Historic Centre of Macao on the World Heritage List” opens featuring two-day activities to spread the spirit of “Protecting and Appreciating Our World Heritage Together”
In celebration of the 15th anniversary of the inscription of the “Historic Centre of Macao” on the World Heritage List, the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC, from its Portuguese acronym) hosts a festival “Celebrating the 15th Anniversary of the Inscription of the Historic Centre of Macao on the World Heritage List” on 11 and 12 July at the “World Heritage Youth Education Base”, located in the Mandarin’s House and the Lilau Square. The opening ceremony was held at 11am today in the Mandarin’s House and was officiated by the Representative of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture and Chief of Office of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Ho Ioc San; the Director of the Department of Publicity and Culture of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Macao S.A.R., Wan Sucheng; the President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Mok Ian Ian; the Director of the Macao Government Tourism Office, Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes; the President of the Executive Committee and Chief Executive Officer of Air Macau Company Limited, Chen Hong; the Deputy General Manager of Bank of China Macao Branch, Chan Hio Peng; and the Vice Presidents of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Leong Wai Man and Cheong Lai San. Several members of the Cultural Heritage Committee and representatives of local cultural heritage associations were also invited. During the opening ceremony, a recognition ceremony of the 2019 Macao Cultural Heritage training programme “Little Little Docent” was held to commend the members who had completed the programme. All the guests, members and parents witnessed the fruitful achievements of the programme and the ceremony was held in a lively atmosphere.
In order to encourage more people to learn about and preserve the precious cultural heritage of Macao, IC has been committed to promoting the city’s cultural heritage and related preservation information through various means and channels. Given that this year marks the 15th anniversary of the inscription of the Historic Centre of Macao on the World Heritage List, IC seeks to spread the spirit of “Protecting and Appreciating our World Heritage Together” to the general public through a variety of celebration activities. A series of activities, including “World Heritage Open Day”, “Heritage City Tours - Guided Tours and Illustration Workshop”, “Fun Sharing Cultural Heritage” lectures, a story-writing competition and a WeChat game, have received active participation of the public. Among the activities, the story-writing competition received a total of nearly 400 entries; the brand-new world heritage exploration activities, such as “World Heritage Open Day” and “Heritage City Tours - Guided Tours and Illustration Workshop”, attracted extensive attention from the public since the first day of registration, reaching a record of nearly 4200 registrants. In addition, IC also endeavours to deepen the public’s knowledge of the city’s cultural heritage and related preservation works by organizing various educational and promotional activities every year, such as “Cultural Heritage Protection Law Promotion Festival”, Macao Cultural Heritage training programme “Little Little Docent” and “Cultural Heritage Summer Course for Secondary School Students of Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao”.
Supported by IC, the Macao Government Tourism Office and a number of cultural heritage associations, the Festival also features various special game booths, giving an introduction of the Historic Centre of Macao and its relevant information to the public in an interactive and interesting way. Various enthralling programmes are also presented, such as thematic exhibition boards of the “Historic Centre of Macao”, a display of world heritage architectural models, Cantonese opera and a lion dance performance, as well as the “Fun Sharing Cultural Heritage - World Heritage Modelling Workshop”, allowing the public to have an understanding of the city’s cultural heritage and heritage protection from different perspectives. During the Festival, free buses are available from Iao Hon Municipal Market and Taipa Central Park to the Mandarin’s House every hour from 11am to 4pm; those interested may also take public transportation to the venues.
The two-day Festival will be concluded on 12 July at 6pm. The public is welcome to participate and experience the lively atmosphere, enjoy the performances and win fabulous prizes in the games, only available while stocks last. To safeguard the health of participants, IC will take a series of anti-epidemic measures, such as strengthening cleaning and sanitization at activity venues. All participants must wear face masks, undergo body temperature checks, present a “Macao Health Code” of the day and follow crowd control measures on site, including admission restricted to a maximum of 100 visitors to the Mandarin’s House and a maximum of 30 visitors in each indoor space at any given time.
The event “Activities in Celebration of the 15th Anniversary of the Inscription of the Historic Centre of Macao on the World Heritage List” is organized by the Cultural Affairs Bureau with the generous support of the Macao Government Tourism Office, the Kaiping Municipal People’s Government, Air Macau Company Limited and Bank of China Macao Branch. For more information about the programme of the Festival and the activities celebrating the 15th anniversary of the inscription of the Historic Centre of Macao, please visit the official website at www.icm.gov.mo/mhd15 or contact Ms. Chong through tel. no. 8590 4382 or Ms. Wong through tel. no. 8590 4329 during office hours.
