Rockin' Macau into the new year!

First-time visitor Macau came by on New Year's Day. Sorry it took me so long to welcome our newest country, but I have been working stupid hours, making up for the amount of time I spent between Christmas and New Year's not working. Hey, life is full of trade-offs.

Macau, of course, was a Portuguese possession from the mid-1500s until 1999, when it returned to Chinese control.  China, while communist, is happy to let Macau remain a capitalist haven, bringing in cash to help support China's otherwise unsupportable economic system. Thus, Macau is a cash cow for China with a purchasing power parity that is the highest in the world while also maintaining its status as the single largest gambling center in the world.

As a gambling center, perhaps it is inevitable that Macau would look a lot like Las Vegas:

OK, Las Vegas with water. Anyway, please extend a big Eff You welcome to Macau. Come back soon, and bring your friends!