American Journalist Stephen Henderson: “Macau is Night and Day”

Stephen Henderson, a well-known freelance journalist from New York City of the United States arrived for his two-day visit to Macau on July 11. Focused on presenting different aspects of tourism destinations, he writes on travel, food, visual style of the place, architectures and how people live. When preparing himself to visit Hong Kong, a Portuguese friend of his highly recommended Macau to him. Since then, he made efforts to carry out a historic research on the former fishing village. Not knowing what exactly to expect, he got the idea that Macau is a place for relaxation and took his first step into this intensely interesting place. He was amazed and surprised by the sophisticated Macau. Soon enough as he went through the old Macau, especially the “Historic Centre of Macau”, he enjoyed the harmonious co-existence of the old and the new. Having a glimpse of both, he cited: “Macau is Night and Day”. Daytime would be for travelers who loved to see the old Macau and others would enjoy the nighttime with modern facilities and entertainment. During his stay, Henderson was enchanted by the architectural style of StarWorld, the atmosphere of the Red Market, the vibrant and living “Historic Centre of Macau”. As a good cook, he took the chance to make the “African Chicken” dish at the Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) and learned more about Chinese cuisine and the Macanese culture. Top three of Henderson’s choices of Macau are antiques, A-Ma Temple and the Macau Museum. Last year, over 120 thousand visitors to Macau were from the United States, recording a growth of 28%. With the belief that Americans would be attracted by the cultural heritage of Macau, Henderson expressed that previously Americans loved to visit Vietnam, but now, they have great affection for China and India. Even though it was a two-day trip for Henderson, he said that Macau gave him a journey “very full of experience and was excited.” When he returns to the U.S., he will be writing stories for New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun to give readers a taste of how Hong Kong and Macau is like. With the thought that he would be back for a longer stay in Macau next time, he hopes to use his fun-filled experience to attract more Americans to the region.