Coloane is considerably bigger than Taipa and, although it has no outstanding attractions, it's a pleasant place to spend a few hours. After crossing the bridge from Taipa, the buses pass the Parque de Seac Pai Van (daily except Mon 9am-7pm; free), a large park with pleasant walks. On top of the hill is a white marble statue of the goddess A-Ma, at 120-metres-high the tallest in the world. Once past the park the buses all stop at the roundabout in Coloane Village on the western shore, overlooking mainland China just across the water. There's no beach, just mud, in which you'll see old men fishing with nets. To the north of the village are a few junk-building sheds, while the street leading south from the village roundabout, one block back from the shore, contains a couple of interesting old shops and the unexpected yellow and white St Francis Xavier Chapel , where a relic of the saint's arm bone is venerated. A couple of hundred metres beyond this is the Tam Kong Temple , housing a metre-long whale bone carved into the shape of a ship.

 

On the north side of the village roundabout there's a small shop where you can rent bicycles for 12ptca an hour. Cycling is a good way to travel the 3km farther round to Hac Sa Beach on the eastern shore (otherwise take bus #21A, #26 or #26A), perhaps dropping in on Cheoc Van Beach to the south on the way as well. The beach at Hac Sa, though, tree-lined and stretching far off round the bay, is without doubt the best in Macau, despite the black colour of its sand, and has good facilities including showers and toilets as well as some fine restaurants nearby. There's also a sports and swimming pool complex here (Mon-Fri 9am-9pm, Sat & Sun until midnight; 15ptca).

Until the eighteenth century Taipa used to be two islands separated by a channel, the silting up of which subsequently caused the two to merge into one. In an interesting repetition of history, the same fate is now befalling Taipa and Coloane, except that this time it is not silt which is the culprit, but land reclamation - the two islands are being deliberately fused into one, to make space for new development.

 

Although Taipa's northern shore is hardly worth a stop now that it is being subsumed into the general Macau conurbation, Taipa Village on the southern shore, with its old colonial promenade, makes a pleasant stop for an extended lunch. There isn't much more than a few streets to the modern village, where the buses stop, though there are some great restaurants along the central north-south alley, Rua do Cunha, and, to the west - the right as you face the shore - a couple of temples in the vicinity of a quiet old square. Next to the Pak Tai Temple there are also some bike rental outlets where you can rent bikes for around 15ptca an hour, if you want to continue your exploration of Coloane (below) under your own steam.

The real interest lies a few minutes' walk to the east of Taipa Village, at the old waterfront area. Here, as though frozen in time, remains a superb old colonial promenade, the Avenida da Praia , complete with its original houses, public benches and street lamps. Great, faded mansions with verandahs overlook the water which has now receded almost out of sight and been replaced by thick shrubbery. One of the mansions, the Taipa House Museum (Tues-Sun 9.30am-1pm & 3-5.30pm; free) is open to the public and reveals details of turn-of-the-century domestic life for the resident bourgeoisie. The residents of these houses were Macanese families, highly religious, well-to-do but not enormously wealthy. Unsurprisingly, the furniture is a Eurasian hybrid, combining features such as statuettes of saints with Chinese dragon motifs on the sofas. There are plans to restore some of the other houses along the Praia, to form a protected historical area.