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The graceful boughs of banyan trees stretch over this elegant avenue, shading the candy-coloured pageant of colonial-era architecture. Unlike in Hong Kong, many of Macau’s historic piles survive in excellent condition. At the gorgeous fort-turned-hotel at Macau’s tip, the Pousada de São Tiago, the road becomes Avenida de Republica. Follow it around the point, where it turns into Rue da Barra and ends in the Porto Interior (Inner Harbour).

This most visible of Macau’s landmarks has kept its lonely vigil on Guia Hill since 1638, its flashing beacon beckoning to everyone from Portuguese traders to ferocious pirates and marauding Dutch navy boats. Catch the cable car up the hill, take in the 360-degree panorama from Macau’s highest point and enjoy a leisurely stroll back down.

The façade and intricate mosaic floor are all that remain of Macau’s grandest church, perched atop a steep flight of stone steps and propped up by a viewing platform at the rear. In its heyday, the Jesuit-designed Cathedral was hailed as the greatest monument to Christian-ity in the East. It caught fire during a massive typhoon in 1835, and only extensive structural work in the early 1990s stopped the façade from crumbling to rubble.

Brightly painted colonial buildings and slightly psychedelic paving makes this square in the heart of Macau a favourite with photographers. At one end sits the Leal Senado, or Loyal Senate, now the seat of the municipal government but once the Portuguese headquarters. It was thus named because Macau refused to recognise the 17th-century Spanish occupation of Portugal.

This elegant building was designed and put up in time for the December 1999 Handover to China. In fact, the actual ceremony took place behind the centre in a temporary structure designed to look like a giant Chinese lantern. The centre is the focal point for the Macau Arts Festival each March. The only mystery is why there is what appears to be a ski-jump on the roof.

More interesting than it sounds – indeed, you might find yourself spending hours wandering this grave-dotted grove, reading inscriptions to plague-doomed sailors and colonial adventurers. Those at rest include painter George Chinnery (the Mandarin Oriental’s bar in Hong Kong is named after him) and Robert Morrison, the first Protestant to venture to China in search of converts.

The author of the 16th-century Portuguese epicThe Lusiads may never actually have visited Macau, but don’t try telling the local Portuguese. Luis Vaz de Camões specialized in overblown, patriotic verse – a bust of him peers through the grotto’s gloom. The adjoining gardens are popular with old men and their caged birds first thing in the morning.

These walls bounded the original Portuguese settlement in Macau, a well-stocked fort, which its inhabitants boasted could withstand years of siege. The sternest test came in 1622 when the Dutch, who had been coveting Macau for years, made their move, only to be decisively beaten. The Portuguese military were based here up until 1966, at which point Portugal decided it was more politic to be administrators of Macau rather than gun-toting colonialists.

The first Western-style lyric theatre in the East, the Dom Pedro opened in 1858. Recent renovations have seen it again hosting plays and performances after years of neglect. The hike up the hill is worth it for a look at a piece of theatrical history.

The Jesuits constructed this ornate lemon-yellow chapel between 1746 and 1758, modelled on the Bon Gesu Basilica in Rome. Its original dedication plaque, recently unearthed, namechecks Portuguese King João V, Macau Bishop Hilario de St Rosa and Chinese Qing-dynasty Emperor Kien Lum. The 200-year-old bells still ring out each day, and all sorts of fascinating Catholic artifacts can be found within.