Culture and Sport - Macao Yearbook

Dr Sun Yat Sen Memorial House
Culture Culture and and Sport Sport
Originally built by Dr Sun Yat Sen as a home for his family in the years after 1918, this Islamic
style residence was opened as Dr Sun Yat Sen Memorial House in 1958.
It contains furniture and other items used by Dr Sun when he practised medicine in Macao, and
when he was the Great Commander in Guangzhou. Among its collections are calligraphy by Dr
Sun and photos he took with his martyr-comrades of the 1911 Revolution. There is also a bronze
statue of Dr Sun in the garden, where visitors can pay their respects.
Lin Zexu Museum
The Lin Zexu Museum in Lin Fong Temple was completed in November 1997, in memory of Imperial
Commissioner Lin Zexu, who defied the powerful and the mighty to institute a ban on opium and
the opium trade. On 3 September 1839, Lin Zexu, who was then in charge in Guangdong, and Deng
Tingzheng, the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, met the Consul of the former Portuguese
administration to proclaim the prohibition of opium and China’s sovereignty over Macao.
The museum displays pictures showing opium being destroyed in Humen, and the old days in
Macao. It also houses documents on Lin Zexu’s communications with the imperial government,
as well as models of Chinese Qing Dynasty warships and Portuguese vessels, and the types of
boats used to carry opium. Life-sized tableaux show Lin’s meeting with foreign officials. There are
instruments used by opium addicts too: a reminder to visitors not to forget the evils of drug addiction.
Fire Service Museum
Founded in December 1999, the Fire Service Museum is located inside the central operational fire
station on Repouso Road. It is open to the public, and received 31,573 visitors in 2011.
The museum has two exhibition halls designed in different styles, which occupy a total area of 350
square metres. The main hall’s display – of vintage manual water pumps made in China and Britain,
two old-style British fire engines, various historical artefacts and pictures, and fire service flags,
emblems, decorations and badges – is designed to help visitors understand the bureau’s development
over the years. The inner exhibition hall contains a model of the Fire Service’s central station, an
electronic board showing the distribution of operational fire stations, firemen’s helmets and boots,
water nozzles, various fire appliances, protective equipment, pictures of disasters that have happened
in Macao, and a model simulating the scene of a fire in a squatter hut area. The museum aims to
increase the knowledge of visitors about fire appliances, and enhance their understanding of the
damage that fires can cause, thereby raising their awareness about the importance of fire prevention.
Museum of Nature and Agriculture
The first museum to be built on Coloane island, the Museum of Nature and Agriculture, under
the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau, is within the Seac Pai Van Country Park. Built by the
then Municipal Council of the Islands, the museum was opened on 21 March 1997. It is a cultural
amenity with an educational purpose.
The museum’s five thematic exhibitions are devoted to the Geography of Macao, Farming
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