Rua dos Ervanarios near the Ruins of St Paul’s was once the busiest street in Macau, but as time went by, it became part of a quiet old district like many others in the city. In February last year however, Patio de Chon Sau, a small street adjacent to Rua dos Ervanarios was given a whole new lease of life, with several shop fronts that had been empty for a long time being revamped and opened for business. All of these shops are part of a project by Number 81 Co. Ltd. to re-energize the area. In particular, the company wanted to attract businesses from the cultural creative industry to move in and bring more visitors to the area.
It has been more than one year since the project started, and more specialty stores and restaurants have emerged on Patio de Chon Sau and Rua dos Ervanarios, attracting more people, both locals and tourists, to visit the streets.
Number 81 Co. Ltd. Project Director Duarte Silvério says that one of the major changes to the area has been the opening of several restaurants, offering Macanese cuisine, fried-chicken and tapas. A ramen shop and a craft beer shop offering beers from all over the world have also opened just recently.
He explains that the reason his company chose Patio de Chon Sau for the project is because this place “is very local and traditional, with a high historical value”. He thinks tourists are very interested in places like this because they want to see items that symbolize the old Macau.
Moreover, Duarte believes that if people cannot find a reason to stay in a place, they are not likely to go there in the first place.
“Therefore, apart from the cultural creative component, we are putting a lot of effort into developing the food and beverage side of the area. We hope that this can attract people to come and take a peek. We understand that there needs to be things that can encourage people to stay longer,” he says.
As part of their strategy to reenergize the area, the company decided not to try to revert it back into what it used to look like, but rather to give the area a brand new look.
“The way we redecorated this area is very unique. There are a lot of old buildings here, but we don’t want to mimic the old way. What we have done is to create a strong contrast by decorating in a very modern way. That’s why we are very aggressive in terms of colour choice,” he says.
One particularly eclectic shop on Patio de Chon Sau is Paper Scissors Rock that sells handicrafts from South Africa, including dinnerware and home decoration pieces. Duarte says the shop is targeting a “particular niche market”, with some repeat customers from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan who purchase in bulk. They also have some locals customers who like to buy individual pieces.
Joint delicacies
Ernest Lok, Operations Director from associated company Number 89 Co., Ltd is responsible for the food and beverage part of the business at Patio de Chon Sau and Rua dos Ervanarios and hopes to build a multi-cultural image for the area. Therefore, they have introduced foods from different countries to the streets, hoping that it will help to attract more people.
Among the restaurants stands a very special shop called World Cup, which specialises in cup noodles. Ernest admits that they thought it was a risky move to open a cup noodles shop.
“However, it has turned out to be quite popular, both for locals and tourists. This is because our stock is more diverse than any supermarket in town. We have as many as 80 types of cup noodles from Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand. We have also recently introduced a brand from Taiwan,” Ernest says.