Heritage | 1930s photo depicts local buildings ‘lifted from Lisbon’

“On the promenade of Macao,” a scenic photo taken in the 1930s

The Chinese embassy in Washington received a set of 24 black-and-white historical photographs of 1930s China last week, presented by a retired U.S. Foreign Service officer.
The photos, published by Keystone View Company, show day-to-day street life and sites of historical importance in 1930s China, and include informative descriptions and predictions from the perspective of an unidentified American.
One photo in the collection, entitled “On the promenade of Macao,” captures a tranquil scene from a by-gone era.
“The city occupies a peninsula three miles long and a mile wide with the harbor spread out in the shape of a crescent at the foot of a great hill,” the photo’s caption reads. “Old world buildings that look as though they have been lifted from the streets of Lisbon cover the hill and from the colorful and fragrant gardens rise red roofs and walls of every color.”
The caption even pays tribute to Macau’s early gaming origins, describing the peninsula as being “notorious as a gambling center” and “called the Monte Carlo of the East.”
“Because of its night life it attracts also the tourists who come to observe and who will probably chance some of their smaller coins just so they can say they have wooed Dame Fortune and Macao,” the caption continues.
Richard Garrison, a former Foreign Service officer, has traveled to China four or five times, according to China Culture, and says he marvels at the changes the country has experienced. Garrison presented the deputy chief of mission of the Chinese embassy, Wu Xi, with the gift last week.