The government’s first-phase revitalisation of Coloane’s Lai Chi Vun shipyards area opened to the public on Saturday afternoon, enabling visitors to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the history of one of the city’s hubs of wooden-vessel manufacturing as well as the city’s traditional shipbuilding industry while watching buskers’ performances and savouring drinks and snacks sold there.
While the exhibition on Lai Chi Vun’s history is open daily, the stalls selling souvenirs, drinks and snacks operate and buskers perform there only every Friday, Saturday and Sunday as well as public holidays.
The revitalised area covering the five plots of X11, X12, X13, X14 and X15 opened to members of the public at 3 p.m. on Saturday, after which an inauguration ceremony was held at 6:30 p.m. that day.
The ceremony was attended by Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U, Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) President Leong Wai Man, and Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes.
Waterfront-cum-hill scenery
Delivering a speech at the ceremony, Leong noted that as one of Macau’s traditional industries, shipbuilding played an important role in the city’s economic activities in the past.
Leong said that Lai Chi Vun Village is a natural and cultural landscape “unique” to Macau because of its layout and the lifestyle of its residents that were created by shipbuilding activities in the past as well as due to its surrounding waterfront-cum-hill scenery.
Leong said that with the city’s urban developments and industrial transformation, Macau’s shipbuilding activities had gradually been disappearing before they finally vanished for good.
Leong pointed out that her bureau launched its project in 2021 to restore and revitalise the Lai Chi Vun shipyards area in phases. She underlined that the bureau has been planning and carrying out the revitalisation project in compliance with the core principle of respecting the village’s historical connotations and preserving the elements capable of displaying memories of the shipbuilding industry.
Leong pledged that her bureau will continue to push ahead with the revitalisation of the Lai Chi Vun shipyards area, i.e., revitalise the old shipyards on other plots in the village, with the aim of creating a space for cultural and recreational activities on the theme of Macau’s traditional shipbuilding industry.
After the ceremony, Ao Ieong and other guests visited the stalls, after which an official briefed her about the exhibition.
Market
A thematic exhibition on the history and culture of Lai Chi Vun Village and its shipyards is currently being held on the X11 plot, a space used for exhibitions that is open between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. daily, while the other four plots of X12, X13, X14 and X15 are open 24/7.
A market comprising 15 stalls is open between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. every Friday, Saturday and Sunday as well as public holidays. The 15 stalls operate on the X13 and X14 plots, where 10 of them sell souvenirs featuring the cultural characteristics of Coloane, such as handmade ship models and postcards showing sketches of Coloane’s landscape, as well as cultural and creative products, while five of them sell special snacks and Macau-branded coffees.
Moreover, the revamped Lai Chi Vun shipyards area has also become a new busking location operating under the Cultural Affairs Bureau’s busking programme. The new busking location is open for buskers to perform between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. every Friday, Saturday and Sunday as well as public holidays.
Furthermore, an area for art improvisation has also been set up in the revitalised village. The improvisation area is open between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday as well as public holidays, where paint and tools are available for visitors to “paint freely”.
Admission is free to the revitalised Lai Chi Vun shipyards area.
Traffic
Those intending to visit Lai Chi Vun Village can choose public bus routes that stop in Coloane Village and walk from there to Lai Chi Vun which normally takes 5 to 10 minutes, namely 15, 21A, 25, 26, 26A and 50.
The government suggests that drivers park at a new public carpark that is located between the private residential estate One Oasis and the Concórdia Industrial Park. The new public carpark, officially known as Rotunda da Concórdia Carpark, came into service early this year. However, it normally a 10-to-15-minute walk from the carpark to Lai Chi Vun.
Revitalisation project
The first-phase revitalisation of the Lai Chi Vun shipyards area covers the five plots of X11, X12, X13, X14 and X15. The first-phase got off the ground last year and was completed last month.
The Lai Chi Vun shipyards area was listed as a cultural heritage site in 2018. Directly translated, Lai Chi Vun means “Lychee Bowl”.
There were initially about 16 shipyards in Lai Chi Vun Village, but several of them had previously collapsed. The Marine and Water Bureau (DSAMA) also demolished two badly dilapidated shipyards in 2017, so there are now about a dozen old shipyards remaining in the village, but many of them are in a poor condition as well.
The Cultural Affairs Bureau’s first-phase revitalisation project preserved and restored the old shipyard on the X11 plot, while it demolished and reconstructed the ones on the X13 and X14 plots because of being on the brink of collapse.
X12 and X15 are the two plots where the two old shipyards that were demolished by the Marine and Water Bureau were located. The Cultural Affairs Bureau’s revitalisation project has kept the X12 and X15 plots as open-air spaces.
The Lai Chi Vun shipyards area covers around 40,000 square metres, while the revitalised five plots of X11, X12, X13, X14 and X15 cover about 4,600 square metres.
According to the exhibition’s information board, shipyards began operating in Lai Chi Vun in the first half of the 20th century. The shipbuilding activities in the village started to diminish in the 1990s, and the last boat was built there in 2005.
Photos taken by Tony Wong on Saturday
