Macau | smokestack, circuit & cobblestones

November 21st, 2009 • cities, movingmemos

The second day in Macau started with a rooftop view over a smokestack. From the thirteen-floor rooftop of a housing block, located adjacent to one of sharpest corners of Macau’s Guia racing circuit, a white industrial obelisk divides the city’s view. This was followed by a long stroll in downtown, picking up Luso references along the way.

From on top of a building by the Portuguese Architect Manuel Vicente, one can’t miss the cigarettesque smokestack of the CEM Power Station (Companhia de Electricidade de Macau). Looking down, one sees the curving streets of Estrada D. de Maria II, at Guia Hill, part of Macau’s Grand Prix circuit. Used once a year, every November, the Guia Street Circuit is famous for its fast straights plus tight sharply twisting corners, and uncompromising crash barriers and know by being brutal, challenging. It is also the only street circuit racing event featuring both car and motorcycle races. Here cars can reach a top speed of 260 km/h (160 mph).

Back on the street level, the first leg of the journey took off in Southern direction. Along narrow sidewalks, featuring perilous crash barriers, passing Tap Seac Gallery and the Portuguese School (with its cobblestones and mosaic tiles), the first stop happened at Caravela for a Luso-lunch. From here, walking back North, into the direction of the Lines Lab studio of Manuel CS and Clara Brito, at Albergue SCM, where last July MovingCities collaborated on their TIMC09!!! event.

Pictures by movingcities.org

tags: infrastructure, macau 澳门, urbanism

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