I’ve always found Macau intriguing. Like Hong Kong it was a colonial possession (handed back by Portugal to China in 1999) but its path to the 21st century seems to have contradicted the unrelenting businesslike shininess and efficiency of the city at this side of the Pearl River Delta. It seems to have passed straight from a colonial backwater to a casino complex, the weekend playground of rich Hong Kongers and mainland Chinese alike, just an hour away by high speed ferry. The wealth brought by the gaming industry might have catapulted Macau’s GDP to one of the highest in the world, but it’s not immediately evident.

Old Macau could easily be mistaken for Lisbon if it weren’t for the Chinese characters on the shops and municipal buildings. Jam-packed as it normally is at weekends and holidays, the streets exude a sort of shabby chic old-worldliness as if the razzmatazz of our current century is an unwelcome intrusion. The street up to the ruins of St Pauls is lined with Korean skincare outlets and pastry shops selling the famous Portuguese egg tarts and, curiously, jerky of all kinds.

In many ways it is. The new monstrosity – forgive me if you find it charming – of the Grand Lisboa hotel and casino complex overshadows everything in the old town, whereas all that remains of the building that would have been the cultural representative of this city, the cathedral of St Paul, is its facade. That’s a metaphor in itself, I think.

Wandering around the streets, we came across an antique shop proudly displaying an intricately-carved elephant’s tusk. Trading of ivory is banned in China now, but it looks like Macau’s status as a traditional centre of the ivory trade ensures that it persists. It’s mere speculation on my part but perhaps Macau’s Special Autonomous Region designation enables it to be flexible about laws that are strictly enforced in the rest of China.

Gambling is another source of income banned in the rest of China but casinos have long existed here and contribute hugely to the economy. Foreign investment in the sector has resulted in developments like The Cotai Strip, which mirrors its Las Vegas counterpart with names such as The Parisien, the MGM Grand and the Sands. Like Sinatra at the Sands, that one.

We spent some time wandering around the third floor representation of canals at The Venetian, with theatrical sets painted to ressemble Venice, a replica of its Las Vegas counterpart, I’m told, complete with gondoliers singing and playing opera arias in Italian. Oddly, the shops that lined the mall were names that feature widely in UK High Streets. I found it all deeply disorientating and not really to my taste but I guess it’s more convenient for the Chinese than making the journey all the way to Vegas.

All in all it was an interesting day full of contrasts where things weren’t at all as they first appeared.