I Went to One of the Wealthiest and Most Advanced Cities

Three cities within an hour of each other, with three languages, three currencies and three legal systems: Macau shaped by Portugal, Shenzhen by China, and Hong Kong by Britain. Harry’s question is how one small corner of the world ended up with three identities, and his answer is that all three were built as somebody’s gateway to China.

Macau gets the history — 400 years of Portuguese trading post, a UNESCO old town, and an official language almost nobody speaks. Shenzhen gets the future — a town of 30,000 in 1980 and 17 million now, where a driverless taxi costs 35 cents and your milk tea arrives by drone. Hong Kong gets the money, and the hotel rated best in the world.

Key moments

• [00:00] The premise: three cities, three systems, side by side.
• [01:17] Transferring straight from Hong Kong airport to Macau without entering Hong Kong, from the E2 desk.
• [02:23] The bridge: the world’s longest bridge-and-tunnel system, 55 km, and he gives the cost as $20 billion.
• [02:23] Visas — Macau and Hong Kong visa-free for UK, and the 240-hour transit policy for the mainland leg.
• [04:39] Portuguese is an official language and about 5% of people speak it.
• [05:09] Macau’s own currency, laws and passports, 700,000 people in a territory locals joke is the size of an airport.
• [06:55] The Macau Tower, 338 m, and the world’s highest bungee jump — 3,000 including the video.
• [08:30] He jumps.
• [09:01] Bamboo scaffolding, and a traditional tea house — cha for tea, casa for house.
• [10:08] His host’s correction of the reputation: everyone knows the casinos, and the place has 400 years of history and an east-west fusion instead.
• [10:41] The wet market — dried oyster, shrimp and squid.
• [12:20] Temple fortune-telling: twelve zodiac shrines, a paid blessing, incense and candles lit in a strict order, red envelopes for the staff.
• [13:58] His year is bad, though not the worst — that’s the horse and the rat.
• [16:07] Given something for nothing, and his host’s joke about white privilege, which he agrees with on camera rather than cutting.
• [16:39] The Cotai Strip — the Vegas comparison, the Venetian, a small Eiffel Tower, a mock Trafalgar Square and a British telephone box.
• [17:43] What he finds hardest to process: Chinese visitors treat British culture as cool, and he no longer does.
• [19:19] The history: the Portuguese permitted a trading post by the Ming in 1557, gateway for tea, porcelain and silk, confined to 33 km² because China never granted more.
• [20:25] International recognition in the 1800s, and the handback in 1999 under one country, two systems.
• [20:58] The name came from a misunderstanding about a temple.
• [21:34] Cars carry two or three number plates — Macau, mainland, Hong Kong.
• [22:06] Taipa, and the real Portuguese buildings.
• [22:39] A queue round the block at a café, for beef stew, presumably viral.
• [23:44] The Ruins of St Paul’s, and the crowd photographing them.
• [24:50] It burned down. There was no war.
• [25:53] Roughly 40 years to build, in limestone and marble, with a university alongside.
• [26:24] The historic centre has been UNESCO-listed since 2005.
• [28:04] Standing in the old square, which he says feels like Lisbon until the Chinese New Year decorations.
• [30:16] Coloane village — quieter, fewer tourists, and the original Lord Stow’s bakery.
• [30:50] The egg tarts: far less sweet than the Portuguese version, and much eggier.
• [31:58] The ferry to Shenzhen, and the visa rules — UK now visa-free for the mainland, and 54 countries eligible for the 240-hour transit visa with an onward ticket.
• [33:39] Wi-Fi on the boat, which prompts his running comparison with British trains.
• [34:09] Shenzhen: 30,000 people in 1980, over 17 million now.
• [34:41] Why it’s the most advanced — China tests new technology here first.
• [35:12] Alipay is essential; Western apps stop working at the border.
• [36:17] His companion, four years resident, on how fast the change has been.
• [36:49] The driverless taxi: a separate app, one district only, and no known incidents.
• [37:53] You need a Chinese ID card to book it, which shuts foreigners out.
• [39:01] The question he asks and doesn’t answer: how many jobs this removes.
• [39:32] They’re cheaper than normal taxis because there’s no driver to pay.
• [40:07] How Shenzhen happened — Deng Xiaoping’s reforms, the first special economic zone, foreign investment and cheap labour.
• [41:11] The fare: 2.4 yuan, about 35 cents, for at least ten minutes.
• [41:41] On safety: cameras everywhere and no worries walking anywhere. Western perception is improving and still isn’t close.
• [43:03] A powered walking exoskeleton, 14,000 yuan — about $2,000. Gimmick for him, genuinely useful for the elderly.
• [45:00] Drone food delivery at the technology park, eight outlets including KFC and McDonald’s.
• [45:41] Twenty minutes for a milk tea — the least efficient one he’s had — and a crowd of locals watching as intently as he is.
• [46:14] Booking rail on Trip.com and travelling on his passport, with nothing to collect.
• [46:51] One of the busiest border crossings in the world, with trains to Hong Kong roughly every five minutes.
• [48:01] Business class is 2+2, and he concludes economy would have done.
• [48:37] £14 for 14 minutes.
• [48:37] The network: 45,000 km, usually 350 km/h, 95% on-time.
• [49:07] Fares are set by distance, not demand, which he calls the fairest arrangement for the passenger.
• [50:43] Hong Kong’s history — Britain took the island after the Opium War, then Kowloon for the harbour, as its gateway to China.
• [51:14] Now a financial centre on free trade, low tax and easy company setup, extremely dense, with extreme wealth and people priced out.
• [51:46] Rents among the highest in the world, which he flags as needing a check.
• [51:46] Cantonese identity is strong and distinct; the city feels far more Western, with Google, Facebook and Instagram working and much more English spoken.
• [52:53] The Rosewood, rated the best hotel in the world.
• [54:29] The harbour view, completely obscured by the weather.
• [55:35] The welcome gift, and free coffee against a paid minibar.
• [56:05] A full set of charging cables in every connector — the detail he says every hotel should copy.
• [56:35] Octagonal everything, because eight is lucky.
• [57:39] Two showers in a standard room, and a marble bathroom he rates the best part of it.
• [58:48] His recommendation: do all three cities, because it’s the same corner of the world running three different experiments.

Extracted pages

• Places: Macau, Shenzhen, Hong Kong
• Country: China
• Tips: Use a transit visa