Macau

Feng Shui is very important in Macau. Chinese ancestral geomancy, Feng Shui demands that buildings and lay outs should be designed in harmony with the different forces of nature like water, wind, mountain, fire,...). It also influences daily activities, determining favourable and unfavourable days prior to taking any major decision. As in Hong Kong, superstition and religion get along with the mad rush for material wealth. Casinos are thus filled with lucky figurines and Buddha statues, while in the temples, fictitious banknotes are burnt to symbolise devotions to deities. Divination is practised with bamboo sticks inside the temples. A pot containing numbered sticks is shaken until one of the sticks falls out. Depending on the number, you are given a paper on which the prediction is written in Chinese. Another typical practice of popular Chinese culture is the tai chi chuan. Early in the morning before heading for their offices, young and old people come to the parks and gardens to practise this slow and limber exercise.