It would be an understatement to call Macau small. Compared with Shanghai, which measures at a whopping 6,340 square kilometers, the Special Administrative Region covers only 28.2 square kilometers, and much of it too hilly to be inhabited.

                   

But as they say, good things come in small packages and in Macau there is rarely a dull moment.

With its exquisite outdoor pedestrian street on Senado Square, charming gardens and European-style buildings, the atmosphere here is distinctly different from anywhere else in Asia.

The former Portuguese enclave is indeed reminiscent of southern Europe.

When my plane landed in Macau, night was beginning to fall but it didn't matter; the bright lights of the downtown beckoned.

Even in December, a typically cold month in Shanghai, Macau was warm. People in the street wore skirts and light shirts and I quickly doffed my thick Shanghai clothes and basked in the warmth; to my body, it felt like spring had returned.

For many people, Macau is a familiar tour destination. The Hong Kong-Macau route has long been popular with tourists and Hong Kongers alike as the two regions are only 60 kilometers away from each other across the Pearl River estuary. For many, they are often a world apart too - a contrast between the new (Hong Kong) and the old (Macau). The trip is also especially quick via the high-speed jet foils that depart regularly.

To date, seven years have passed since Macau returned to China on December 20, 1999. Since then, tourism has soared, especially among visitors from China's mainland.

According to the local tourism authority, Macau has received more than 20 million tourists in the first 10 months of this year, an increase of 15.85 percent from the same period last year.

This is considered a huge achievement as Macau only attracted nine million tourists in 2000. Visitors from China's mainland, who constituted 54 percent of the tourists this year, have been the driving force behind the increase.

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