Briefs | 14pct increase in tourist arrivals Oct 1-3

Yesterday the Macao Government Tourism Office announced that during the first three days of the National Day Golden Week, October 1 to 3, the number of visitors in Macau totaled to 424,179 people, an increase of 14 percent year-on-year.  Mainland tourists accounted for 85.9 percent of the total with 364,234 people, up 24.1 percent year-on-year. The Gongbei Border Gate collectively recorded a total of over 1.2 million crossings on October 1 to 3. Around 63 percent of visitors entered Macau through the Border Gate.

Health Bureau to awards blood donors

The Health Bureau (SSM) will be holding a prize ceremony this evening for all regular blood donors, as well as schools, institutions, public services and associations that collaborate with the SSM in blood donation activities. In the ceremony, a total of 1,017 blood donors who have made blood donations on at least 10 occasions by the end of 2017 will be awarded. The ceremony will also host representatives from 56 schools, institutions and associations. The most decorated blood donors will have a special award for donors that have contributed up to 130 times.

UM holds multimedia performance next Friday

A performance titled ‘Lightscape: A Synthesis of Video Animation and Dance’, organised by the Centre for Arts and Design, University of Macau (UM), will be held next Friday (12 October) at 8 p.m. in the UM University Hall (N2). Created and produced by members of the Centre for Arts and Design, the performance is a synthesis of video animation and dance. Participants in the performance come from the Yanjinzi Gao’s Beijing Contemporary Dance Company, Xinghai Conservatory of Music from Guangzhou, as well as various dance troupes in Macau.

Bridal portrait exhibition to open next week

A portrait exhibition “St. Lazarus Brides” by Vera Paz will open to the public on October 10 at D1 Gallery Albergue SCM.  The exhibition is an installation of 30 wedding portraits taken with an iphone4 camera between 2015 and 2018 on the streets of the historic St. Lazarus district, at locations which include the Church of São Lázaro, Adro de São Lázaro, Rua Nova de São Lázaro, and Rua de São Roque. The installation places the bride and groom as “real” characters, in unusual and unexpected moments between staged poses, according to a statement issued by Albergue SCM. Organized by the Cultural Association d’As Entranhas Macau, the exhibition has a soundtrack of classic romantic and contemporary music ranging from the 1940s until now.

Int’l Translation Day marked by IPM

The Macao Polytechnic Institute (IPM) held a celebration of the International Translation Day on September 27, 2018. Since 1953, the International Federation of Translators and other translation practitioners across the world have celebrated this occasion in many different ways. In 2017, a UN Resolution officially designated September 30 as International Translation Day. During the ceremony held at IPM, three students from the International Chinese Language Education program, Chinese-Portuguese Translation program and Chinese-English Translation program took turns to announce the theme to the audience in three languages: Mandarin, Portuguese and English. The rundown of the celebration included a drama performance entirely written and directed by the students themselves, a poetry recital, and the performance of “A New Story of Liangshanbo and Zhu Yingtai” by students from Portuguese-speaking countries.

Flood prevention project construction starts

A project to improve flood control at blackspots in Toi San and Ilha Verde started work yesterday. The facility construction is expected to take approximately five months. The Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) will build a 200-meter-long rainwater drainage channel along Av. do Comendador Ho Yin to Patane North Street, in order to reduce rainwater drainage in Canal Dos Patos. Furthermore, IACM will also build manholes in the area to make future water discharge channel clean-ups more convenient.   

Sulu Sou calls for point-based affordable housing system

Lawmaker Sulu Sou has requested the government to return to the prior point-based system for allocating affordable housing to households. In an inquiry written to the government, Sou also asked, “will the government require at least half of the members of a family of an affordable housing application to have already lived in Macau for more than seven years?” Housing Bureau Director Arnaldo dos Santos replied, saying that the government is making a final amendment to the affordable housing law and is proposing a return to point-based system.

Citi reports Macau October GGR up 5 percent

Citigroup’s report showed that Macau’s total visitor arrivals rose 14.3 percent yearly to 276,200 on the first two days of the National Day Golden Week. During the first three days of the week, there were more visitors than any day during last year’s Golden Week. The broker is forecasting that this will bode well for October mass GGR growth, when it had previously conservatively forecasted only 5 percent growth to MOP28.0 billion.