Coloane
Encyclopedia
Coloane is one of the two main islands of the Macau Special Administrative Region, located directly south of Macau's other main island, Taipa
(氹仔, Dàngzǎi), and east of Hengqin
Island of Zhuhai
in Guangdong
province.
Coloane was known in Cantonese as Gau Ou Saan (九澳山, lit. "Nine-inlet Mountain", transcribed in Portuguese as Ká-Hó) and Yim Zou Waan (鹽灶灣 , lit. "Salt-stove Bay"). The Portuguese
name "Coloane" is derived from the Cantonese
pronunciation of Gwo Lou Waan (過路環, lit. "Passing-road Ring").
. It is connected to Taipa by a 2.2 km land-fill bridge, the Estrada do Istmo, however land reclamation
has physically connected the two islands and a new town called Cotai
has been built between Taipa and Coloane, which is home to the Cotai Strip
and many other casinos under development.
The narrowest part of Coloane is 300 metres. The highest points in Macau are eastern and central Coloane, with the highest point being the 171-metre Alto de Coloane (Chin.
: 疊石塘山, Port.
: Alto de Coloane ). The northern shore of the island is 4.5 m deep, and is the site of the Macau Deepwater Port. The eastern Hac Sa Beach (Chin.
: 黑沙海灘, Port.
: Baía de Hác Sá) and the southern Cheoc Van Bay (Chin.
: 竹灣, Port.
: Baía de Cheoc Van) are popular swimming beaches. At Baía de Hác Sá there is a Portuguese
restaurant called "Fernandos", famous amongst locals in Macau and tourists from Hong Kong
.
onwards and until the Portuguese arrival in 1864, Coloane was a sea salt
farm for China
. After their arrival, the Portuguese made Macau an important trading port, but Coloane remained deserted, which was used as a base by pirates until 1910. The island has become more populated after the Estrada do Istmo was finished in 1969.
Taipa
Taipa is the smaller of the two islands in the Chinese special administrative region of Macao .- Geography :It is 2.5 kilometres from Macau Peninsula and east of the Lesser Hengqin Island of Zhuhai, Guangdong Province...
(氹仔, Dàngzǎi), and east of Hengqin
Hengqin
Hengqin Dao is an island in Zhuhai, a prefecture-level city and Special Economic Zone in the Guangdong province of the People's Republic of China...
Island of Zhuhai
Zhuhai
Zhuhai is a prefecture-level city on the southern coast of Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in the Pearl River Delta, Zhuhai borders Jiangmen to the northwest, Zhongshan to the north, and Macau to the south. Zhuhai was one of the original Special Economic Zones...
in Guangdong
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
province.
Coloane was known in Cantonese as Gau Ou Saan (九澳山, lit. "Nine-inlet Mountain", transcribed in Portuguese as Ká-Hó) and Yim Zou Waan (鹽灶灣 , lit. "Salt-stove Bay"). The Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
name "Coloane" is derived from the Cantonese
Standard Cantonese
Cantonese, or Standard Cantonese, is a language that originated in the vicinity of Canton in southern China, and is often regarded as the prestige dialect of Yue Chinese....
pronunciation of Gwo Lou Waan (過路環, lit. "Passing-road Ring").
Geography
Coloane has an area of 8.07 km² (4-km long) and is 5.6 km from the Macau PeninsulaMacau Peninsula
Macau Peninsula is the oldest and most populous part of Macau. It has an area of 8.5 km² and is geographically connected to Guandong province, at the northeast, through an isthmus 200-metre wide. The peninsula, together with the city centre of Zhuhai, sits on an island separated from the...
. It is connected to Taipa by a 2.2 km land-fill bridge, the Estrada do Istmo, however land reclamation
Land reclamation
Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, is the process to create new land from sea or riverbeds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamation ground or landfill.- Habitation :...
has physically connected the two islands and a new town called Cotai
Cotai
Cotai is a 5.2 km2 piece of newly reclaimed land between Taipa and Coloane islands in Macau, that has not yet been assigned to any of the freguesias. The Chinese and Portuguese names are a portmanteau of the two islands, Coloane and Taipa....
has been built between Taipa and Coloane, which is home to the Cotai Strip
Cotai Strip
The Cotai Strip is the casino and tourism project in the Cotai District, Macau, inspired by the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada, USA, on a considerably smaller scale....
and many other casinos under development.
The narrowest part of Coloane is 300 metres. The highest points in Macau are eastern and central Coloane, with the highest point being the 171-metre Alto de Coloane (Chin.
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
: 疊石塘山, Port.
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
: Alto de Coloane ). The northern shore of the island is 4.5 m deep, and is the site of the Macau Deepwater Port. The eastern Hac Sa Beach (Chin.
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
: 黑沙海灘, Port.
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
: Baía de Hác Sá) and the southern Cheoc Van Bay (Chin.
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
: 竹灣, Port.
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
: Baía de Cheoc Van) are popular swimming beaches. At Baía de Hác Sá there is a Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
restaurant called "Fernandos", famous amongst locals in Macau and tourists from Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
.
History
From the Song DynastySong Dynasty
The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
onwards and until the Portuguese arrival in 1864, Coloane was a sea salt
Sea salt
Sea salt, salt obtained by the evaporation of seawater, is used in cooking and cosmetics. It is historically called bay salt or solar salt...
farm for China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. After their arrival, the Portuguese made Macau an important trading port, but Coloane remained deserted, which was used as a base by pirates until 1910. The island has become more populated after the Estrada do Istmo was finished in 1969.
Tourism
Famous sites on the island include:- Tam KungTam KungTam Kung or Tam Tai Sin is a sea deity worshiped in Hong Kong and Macau.In Chinese folk legends, Tam Kung was one of gods who could forecast the weather. He was born in Huizhou Prefecture. It was said that he could cure patients in his childhood. Tam Kung became an immortal in heaven at the age...
Temple (譚公廟), dedicated to Lord Tam, a Taoist god of seafares - Old Tin HauMatsu (goddess)Mazu , also spelt Matsu, is the indigenous goddess of the sea who is said to protect fishermen and sailors, and is invoked as the patron deity of all Southern Chinese and East Asian persons...
Temple (天后古廟) - A-Ma Statue (媽祖像), built on October 28, 1998 (lunar calendarLunar calendarA lunar calendar is a calendar that is based on cycles of the lunar phase. A common purely lunar calendar is the Islamic calendar or Hijri calendar. A feature of the Islamic calendar is that a year is always 12 months, so the months are not linked with the seasons and drift each solar year by 11 to...
: September 9) - Church of Our Lady of SorrowsOur Lady of SorrowsOur Lady of Sorrows , the Sorrowful Mother or Mother of Sorrows , and Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows or Our Lady of the Seven Dolours are names by which the Blessed Virgin Mary is referred to in relation to sorrows in her life...
, Ká-Hó (九澳七苦聖母小堂) - Chapel of St. Francis Xavier (聖方濟各聖堂), of the São Francisco Xavier Parish (聖方濟各堂區). The chapel, built in 1928, is located on the southern coast of the island and stands near a monument commemorating a victory over pirates in 1910. The chapel used to contain some of the most sacred ChristianChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
relicRelicIn religion, a relic is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a tangible memorial...
s in AsiaAsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, including the remains of 26 foreign and JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese CatholicCatholicThe word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
priests who were crucified in Nagasaki in 1597, as well as those of some of the Japanese Christians who were killed during the Shimabara RebellionShimabara RebellionThe was an uprising largely involving Japanese peasants, most of them Catholic Christians, in 1637–1638 during the Edo period.It was one of only a handful of instances of serious unrest during the relatively peaceful period of the Tokugawa shogunate's rule...
in 1637. Among them was a bone from the arm of St. Francis Xavier, who died in 1552 on Sanchuan Island, 50 miles (80.5 km) from Macau, before it was transferred to Saint Joseph's Seminary and the Sacred Art Museum http://www.macautourism.gov.mo/new_site/sightseeing/sightseeing.php?lang=en&catid=8. - Museum of Nature and Agriculture (土地暨自然博物館)
- Avenida de Cinco de Outubro (十月初五馬路)
- Hac Sa Bay ParkHac Sa Bay ParkHac Sa Bay Park is an ocean side park located on Coloane Island, in the former Portuguese colony of Macau, now a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. It is named for the black sand beaches in the area....
and Coloane ParkColoane ParkColoane Park is a large park located on the southern section of Coloane Island in the former Portuguese colony of Macau, now a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.Features of the park include:* Coloane Hiking Trail* picnic areas...