China Guide
Macau
Taipa
Taipa, site of Macau International Airport, racecourse, sports stadium, university and residential "suburbs", at first seems too developed to warrant a special stop. However, tiny Taipa Village on the island's east side, with its old colonial promenade, makes a pleasant place for an extended lunch. Rua do Cunha (or "Food Street") leads down to the old covered Feira do Carmo market square, which is partly surrounded by a dragon wall and several restaurants. Above the old colonial promenade, Avenida da Praia, five original, peppermint-green mansions with verandas now form the Taipa House Museum (Tues– Sun 10am–6pm; MOP$5 allows entry to all five), which reveals details of early nineteenth-century domestic life for the resident Macanese families: high-ranking civil servants who were religious and well-to-do, but not enormously wealthy.
From Almeida Ribeiro, buses #11 and #33 go to Taipa Village; buses #21, #21A, #26 and #26A stop outside the Hyatt Regency on Taipa before going on to Coloane.