Cotai
Cotai (Chinese: 路氹城; Cantonese Yale: Louhtáhm Sìhng; Portuguese: Zona do Aterro de Cotai) is a 5.2-square-kilometer (2.0 sq mi) piece of newly reclaimed land on top of Seac Pai Bay between Taipa and Coloane islands in Macau,[1] that has made two independent islands become one island, since 2005. The word (a combination of Coloane and Taipa) can also refer to the entire new island which was formed by the reclamation. In the second sense, the Special Administrative Region of Macau now consists of the Macau Peninsula plus Cotai Island, about a mile to the south.[2]
Cotai
路氹城 Cotai | |
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![]() Cotai | |
![]() Zona do Aterro de Cotai in Macau | |
Country | Macau |
Region | Municipality of Ilhas |
Area | |
• Total | 5.8 km2 (2.2 sq mi) |
Population (2016) | |
• Total | ~300 |
Time zone | UTC+8 (Macau Standard) |
Area code(s) | 0 |
Cotai Landfill Zone | |||||||||||||||||
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Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 路氹填海區 | ||||||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 路凼填海区 | ||||||||||||||||
Jyutping | lou6 tam5 tin4 hoi2 keoi1 | ||||||||||||||||
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Alternative Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 路氹城 | ||||||||||||||||
Jyutping | lou6 tam5 sing4 | ||||||||||||||||
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Portuguese name | |||||||||||||||||
Portuguese | Zona do Aterro de Cotai |
Cotai was created to provide Macau with a new gambling and tourism area since Macau is so densely populated and land is scarce, and many hotels and casinos can be found in the vicinity of the "Cotai Strip".[3] In 2006, a new hospital was founded in the Cotai area, the MUST Hospital, which is associated with the Macau University of Science and Technology Foundation.
History
In 1968, a causeway (Estrada do Istmo) connecting Taipa and Coloane was inaugurated.[4] Throughout the 90s, a series of landfill works expanded this isthmus, and after the 1999 transfer of sovereignty over Macau from Portugal to China, further landfills began to expand this small isthmus further.
Hotels and Casinos
The "Cotai Strip" is a name dubbed to the entire hotel-casino area, when the term "Cotai Strip" has been trademarked by Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which coined the phrase (USPTO Registration Nos. 4396486 and 4396486 for gaming and hotel services), and only applies to its properties.
Galaxy Entertainment Group's Grand Waldo Hotel was the first casino to commence operations in Cotai, opening its doors in May, 2006. The construction of many other casino and hotel projects is currently underway. The largest and most notable property on Cotai so far is Las Vegas Sands' Venetian Macao, which opened its doors on August 28, 2007.[5] Melco PBL Holdings opened the City of Dreams directly across the street from the Venetian on June 1, 2009.
As of September 2020, several new hotel-casinos have opened in Cotai, with several more scheduled to open in the next few years including the Grand Lisboa Palace and the Lisboeta Macau.
List of Hotels and Casinos
- Broadway Macau
- City of Dreams
- Galaxy Macau
- Grand Lisboa Palace (Future)
- Lisboeta Macau (Future)
- MGM Cotai
- Pousada Marina Infante
- Sands Cotai Central
- Studio City Macau
- The Parisian Macao
- The Plaza Macao
- The Venetian Macao
- Wynn Palace
Tourist Attractions
Transportation
- Cotai Jet – owned by The Venetian Macao, operating high speed Catamaran ferry services between Taipa Ferry Terminal and Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal, Hong Kong
- Macau Light Rapid Transit - a mass transit system in Macau under construction. It will serve the Macau Peninsula, Taipa and Cotai, serving major border checkpoints such as the Border Gate, the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal, the Lotus Bridge Border and the Macau International Airport. The Ocean to Taipa Ferry Terminal line began operations in late 2019.
Gallery
- Ferry piers in Cotai
- Cotai Strip under construction in 2007
- Cotai in 2007
See also
Footnotes
- Malaysia Star, Must-see Macau, 25 November 2006
- "Macao hoists Signal No. 9 to embrace Typhoon Mangkhut". Retrieved 2018-12-23.
- Starkweather, Maxim. "History of Cotai - The Creation of Cotai - Macau Casinos". Macau Casinos. Archived from the original on 2017-03-25. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
- Quadros, Saldanha (15 March 2018), "Macao, Cotai, and The New Architecture", Macao Magazine, retrieved 2020-04-16
- Venetian Macao press release, 28 August 2007