Macau

Macau was Portuguese for four and a half centuries and the old centre is a World Heritage site of painted churches and praça tiling that exists nowhere else in Asia. The Cotai strip alongside it holds some of the largest and most expensive hotels ever built. The food is the sleeper attraction: Macanese cooking is a genuine fusion rather than a marketing one, and the Michelin density is remarkable for the size. The ferry from Hong Kong takes an hour, the bridge rather less.