On our way to go back to Guangzhou, all of a sudden a very special structure in a shape of a black granite volcano caught my attention. Then I summoned my friends to get off the bus and explored the site. I thought it was a fishing location, but it was an amusement park named Fisherman’s Wharf. The admission to the park was free so we just got in without hesitation.
The Fisherman’s Wharf is claimed to be Macau’s first and the largest themed attraction and shopping center which sprawls over an area of 111,500 square meters of which 40 percent is a reclaimed land from the sea. Modeled on Euramerican fisherman’s wharf, the park was invested by Ho Hung San, one of the top 10 billionaires in the Hong Kong – Macau region and Chow Kam Fai, a Macau entrepreneur who runs business in tourism, entertainment and gambling industries. Spending about MOP 1.9 billion for the five-years construction, the park was finally inaugurated on December 31, 2005 and officially opened to public on December 23, 2006. Situated on the outer harbor of Macau Peninsula, just a five-minutes walk from the Macau – Hong Kong Ferry terminal, the amusement park has a clock shape. It houses 150 stores and restaurants in various building styles like Amsterdam, Cape Town and Venice, six rides, a 72-room hotel and a casino.
The park is split into three main sections: Dynasty Wharf, East Meets West and Legend Wharf. In the Dynasty Wharf section, there are many Chinese towers which are built based on the architecture of ancient Tang dynasty. The East Meets West section combines oriental traditions and western features including a 40-meter tall man-made volcano, waterfalls, architectures of Greece, an ancient battleship, an Arabian children's play area, a Roman Amphitheatre, shopping mall and exhibition facilities. The Legend Wharf section is composed of all kinds of recreational facilities including the High-tech Games Center, Water Performance Arena and a Video Games Center.
We firstly visited the Legend Wharf section including the Underground that has many video-game arcades for children. Unfortunately, I hardly found anyone playing game inside the game center.
The Underground offers various computer games for children mainly video-game arcades 
The entrance to the Underground
The big bulldozer that ushers visitors to the Underground
In the Underground, there are many children’s video game arcades yet I did not find any single child there… From the Legend Wharf section, we proceeded to the East Meets West section that consist of a 40-meter tall man-made volcano, waterfalls, architectures of Greece, an ancient battleship, an Arabian children's play area, a Roman Amphitheatre, shopping mall and exhibition facilities.
The harbor nearby the Fisherman’s Wharf provides a beautiful natural backstage to the park
The Alladin’s Fort is a middle-eastern style fort that houses various children’s rides and attractions.
As you can see in the picture, this is one of the children’s rides at the Alladin’s Fort. But strangely, there was no one taking the ride.
One of the challenges at the Alladin’s Fort 
My friends and I took picture together with one of the on-duty soldiers who guarded the entrance to the “War Game”. Do you think the gun he is holding is a real or fake one???
Inside the Alladin’s Fort there is a war game. Though it seemed interesting from outside, we did not enter it…
This Roman Amphitheater is a replica of the world’s famous Colosseum, which is equipped with 2,000 seats. This is the center of activity at the park where many performances and concerts are held. 
The view taken from the Roman Amphitheater
This structure is called Vulcania, a 40-meters tall man-made volcano replica that erects in the midst of the amusement zone. It is also the most prominent structure of the park that provides a perfect place for visitors to take photo snaps. The walkways are styled on the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet. 
The view taken from the Vulcania
My friends and I climbed the Vulcania to reach its top
From the peak of the Vulcania, you can overview the Sands Macau, which is the largest and the first U.S owned casino in Macau that was named after the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. This project was invested by Sheldon Gary Adelson (the Las Vegas Sands Chairman). With an investment of $240 million, the Sands Macau Casino was opened to public in 2004. Covering an area of 4,132,231 square meters (about 1,021 acres), it has 740 table games and more than 600 casino slot machines, making it a magnificent casino center in Macau. 
After taking photos at the Vulcania, my friends and I continued our journey to the Dynasty Wharf, where all the buildings were Chinese towers that followed the architecture style of the Tang Dynasty.
This structure is very impressive with a typical Chinese architecture dated back to the Tang Dynasty
Along the magnificent Chinese towers, there is a beautiful harbor 
There is also a small canal nearby the tower, much more like a replica of garden of the Tang Dynasty
Finally we finished our exploration of the park and we were heading home Driven by the intention to give a dedicated nightlife and dining district for Macau citizens, the park combines entertainment, shopping, dining, hotel accommodations, theme park, and conference facilities, all into one. In fact, the park is expected to have its most active hours at night. Since the park is open for 24 hours with no admission fee, it is rapidly emerging as the most popular amusement park in Macau. However, the reality was so much far from the expectation as the visitors to the park were very scarce. There were only very few visitors at that time and there was so little to do. The amusement park did not have enough attractive rides both for kids and adults. Of all the rides, we only tried to play the bumper car which was very pricey for such a short time. Besides that, we only took pictures and enjoyed the view. I did not understand why the park did not have a lot of visitors. Maybe, the time we visited it was not appropriate for we visited it in the late afternoon instead of in the evening. If you expect a great thrill at this Fisherman’s Wharf, you probably will be greatly disappointed. However, visiting it for a free admission just to look around and have a different insight about Macau will not hurt.
Sources:
Personal experience and additional information from other online articles
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