The Top 3 Landmarks in Macau

One of Macau's three great Buddhist temples — a deep, incense-heavy 1627 complex dedicated to the goddess of mercy, where the first US-China treaty was signed in 1844 on a stone table you can still see. Almost no tourists. If you want one temple that feels wholly untouristed, it's this one.

A 17th-century hilltop fortress with the first Western-style lighthouse on the China coast and a chapel hiding remarkable frescoes that mix Christian and Chinese motifs. Free, with the best panorama in Macau, reached by a two-pataca cable car. Caveat: the lighthouse interior only opens to the public one day a year.

The 17th-century Jesuit fortress on the hill beside the Ruins of St. Paul's — cannons still aimed at the Grand Lisboa, wide lawns, and the best free viewpoint in the old town. It famously repelled the Dutch in 1622. Grounds are free daily 7am-7pm; the Macau Museum is built into it. Go — it's effortless to add to the Ruins.

The wave-patterned mosaic heart of old Macau — pastel Portuguese facades, St. Dominic's Church, fountains and 400 years of civic life, all UNESCO-listed and free. Every first visit starts here, rightly. Caveat: it's also the busiest retail drag in the city; the magic is in the side lanes and upper floors, not the chain stores.