Previous Section-Part 2B
[3/5]
Chapter 9

Highways and dead ends

The hunt for Xavier Ligonnès is enough to drive you crazy. It’s like looking for a lost object, a bank card for example, of which we can determine the exact moment of disappearance: we used it to pay, it was there, and the next moment it is not there anymore. Logic dictates that we look for it where we usually store it (a wallet, a handbag), then where it could be (a back pocket of pants, a hall cabinet), and the less we find it , the more we seem to see it everywhere. Faced with absence, the brain constructs images (the credit card in an office drawer, as a bookmark in a book, forgotten on the counter of the last store) but these are fictions or mirages; they encourage further research but they do not provide a solution. Xavier Ligonnès’s apparent volatilization follows the same logic and produces the same effects on the investigation. The more weeks and months go by, the more places to look get smaller. Emmanuel Teneur ends up leading the investigators to the Société Générale agency on Place Royale in Nantes, but the safe he holds there is simply empty. A request for information on Joven Soliman is sent to the security attaché for the French Embassy in the Philippines. He is a sedevacantist priest, a fringe of traditionalist Catholicism who considers the Pope to be an imposter. The attaché transmits the hours of mass where he officiates. A trip to the Philippines is being considered, but that would mean going to the other side of the world to look for a needle in the thousands of islands of the archipelago. If this track has never been closed, nothing has supported it to date.
Since we must push logic to the end, the investigators even contact the American authorities to corroborate or contradict the story of protected witnesses told by Ligonnès in his famous letter. The DEA has never heard of the individual, and the liaison officer based at the Miami consulate assures us that his last trip to the United States was in 2003: Ligonnès arrived in Florida on July 18 and left on August 22. The study of his entourage also did not highlight anyone capable of providing false papers to the fugitive, and if he had gone through a criminal network, the police believed that an informant would undoubtedly have warned them to protect himself.
Then there are the news reports: the portrait of Ligonnès goes around France, and even if he has undoubtedly changed his physical appearance, his hairstyle, perhaps had even resorted to cosmetic surgery, someone, somewhere, might recognize him one day. After all, that’s how John List, a New Jersey insurance salesman who killed his wife and mother in 1971, was arrested. He waited for two of his children to return from school to coldly shoot them, then attended his youngest son’s football game before shooting bullets through him at home. He evaded justice for 18 years until a co-worker recognized him from a report on America’s Most Wanted.
Rarely has a criminal case given rise to as many appeals as that of Ligonnès, because his stalking not only bewitches the police, it torments an entire country. More than 1000 reports, thousands of pages of depositions, letters, verifications. You have to imagine the miles of printed paper that this represents when they are stacked on a desk. The most recent: in July, after the broadcast of a Netflix documentary on the subject in the United States, the producers of the film claimed to have received an interesting lead in Chicago; but it’s just one more drop in the bucket. Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès has been seen in Annecy, Nancy, Cholet, Corsica (several times); on the side of a road, thumbs up, by a French tourist in Las Vegas; disguised as a chimney sweep in Nîmes; in a hotel in Cantal and in a pizzeria where he paid cash in a hurry; seen again in Germany, in Italy, and heard on the telephone by the reception of the psychiatric hospital of Troyes. Since he disappeared looking like the ordinary neighbor, since he was a representative and his profession has taken him to all corners of France, there is no less reason to see him in Mulhouse than in Roche-sur-Yon, and you can simply see him everywhere.
Aire de Lançon-Provence in July 2020
Extracts: “It was the same look, except that he looked very sad, in the west, but he had the same glasses as in the photo you are showing me”; “He looked like a man like everyone else, but there was something odd in his eyes;” “Yesterday, around 1:00 pm, I was watching the news on television on the TFI channel. I saw a report where an individual killed his children and his wife before disappearing into the wild. (...) Seeing the gentleman in the photo, I made the connection with the person whom I had crossed Sunday afternoon because he had the same smile.” At the Vauvert tourist office: “I hardly look at the news, but Thursday evening I saw the photo of Mr. Ligonnès, I had the impression of having already seen him, my heart was racing.” Between Carpentras and Avignon, when he comes back from the bakery, the manager of one of Nicolas Sarkozy’s brothers crosses paths with a man with a beige bob, which he is certain is the fugitive. “I flashed,” he says. “For me, there is no doubt. This is him.” Still more letters are sent to the police to offer them help. An amateur astrologer requests a copy of the suspect’s birth certificate to establish a birth chart, a woman in child-like writing recommended a great medium who had helped her find her daughter who had become a junkie in Marseille. A prisoner asked in writing to be sent to Guinea to go hunt him down in the jungle, attaching to his letter a list of the necessary equipment, including infrared glasses and a “samurai sword.”
With each letter, with each phone call to report a suspicious individual, investigators attempt to cross-reference the information. They patiently collect the testimonies of the depositors to know where Xavier Ligonnès was seen, if he was accompanied or not, what was his size and his outfit. Inconsistent testimonies or those referring to individuals who are too young (Ligonnès would be 59 years old today) and too small (he measures a little over 1.80 meters) are discarded. For the others, investigators check the CCTV recordings, when they have not been erased and when the cameras have actually recorded on tape. If the person has been spotted pumping gasoline, in a Géant Casino, or in a Courtepaille, they trace the means of payment used and seize the duplicates of bank cards. They give priority to the restaurants, especially the Buffalo Grill, Ligonnès’ favorite establishment. And when the trail is still hot and the dishes haven’t been done yet, they collect DNA from the plates and cutlery. A few months after the start of the investigation, the investigating judge in charge of the case will even be forced to ask them to slow down, the seals starting to take on the appearance of a china cabinet in a large restaurant.
The Total service station in Lançon-Provence, July 2020
The PJ of Nantes believed on several occasions to finally have in hand the winning ticket and to be on the point of intercepting Ligonnès. This was the case in Borgo, where a photo taken from the video surveillance of a supermarket in this small Corsican town was very similar. Upon verification, it was only a local. They believed in it even more in January 2018 when they were told that an individual with a strong resemblance to Xavier Ligonnès was at the Saint-Désert Notre-Dame de Pitié monastery near Roquebrune-sur-Argens. About twenty police officers raided and searched the premises until they came across Brother Jean-Marie Joseph, who certainly looked disturbingly like Ligonnès, but who was not him. In still other cases, the police were never able to “close the track,” and it is perhaps Ligonnès who was seen.
For example, in Lançon-Provence, April 26, 2011. That day, at 2:44 am, Mahjoub B., a handler by profession, parks his vehicle at the Total service station after the Lançon-Provence toll. He fills up, then goes to the store to pay. On his way, he passes a 45- to 50-year-old man, about six feet tall, who hangs out there between the gas pumps and the store. When he returns to his vehicle, his colleague asks him if he has seen the man, whom he is convinced is the one everyone is looking for, the one who killed his family in Nantes. Mahjoub then takes a new look at the individual, notices that he is wearing glasses, light jeans, that he has brown hair a little graying and a beard of a day. At his feet, four rigid shopping bags, one red, one white, one brown and one whose color he cannot distinguish. Inside the store, employees also noticed the individual. He’s been out for almost three hours. At one point, he walks in to ask for free coffee, as part of a promotion. Behind her cash register, Jocelyne H. notes a detail: he is missing a tooth. “The second on the left, I believe,” she says when heard by investigators. This is information that has never filtered out and yet, it’s true – a little detail, Xavier Ligonnès was missing a tooth. Little by little, the space has filled in, but you can always see it when he smiles. The images from the station’s surveillance cameras are confusing: if this man is not the one we are looking for, it must be his twin brother. At 3 a.m., the cameras show him hitchhiking by a Volkswagen Combi, which investigators quickly find. The driver’s name is Christophe B. He has not heard of the case, and he must be one of the only ones in the country; but Christophe is no longer listening to the news because, he says, “the news is bad all the time.” From the hitchhiker on the night of the 25th to the 26th, he remembers that he “did not smell very good” and that he had a growing beard. They didn’t discuss much. The man simply told him that he was coming from Paris where he had gone to see “his sick old father,” and that he wanted to take the train to Aix-en-Provence. Christophe dropped him off at a motorway exit, the 30 or the 31, between 4 a.m. and 4.15 a.m. The surveillance cameras at Aix train station allow you to get back on track. He is filmed on the forecourt at 6 am, he wears light pants, a dark jacket. He buys a ticket at 1.20 euro, free destination. Then we lose track.
Despite all the checks, despite all the cameras, it will be impossible to track this man perfectly resembling Dupont de Ligonnès, who could nevertheless have confirmed that he was, at least on this date, still alive.
How can one suddenly evaporate in plain sight, and how could a man who has collected chess all his life accomplish this feat? The XDDL mystery makes it possible to scaffold all the theories. These flourish in books, in docudramas and, of course, on the Internet. We imagine Ligonnès protected by the secrecy of a monastery, flown to the United States, where he can go unnoticed thanks to his English without an accent, or even on the escape alongside a woman he would have manipulated. The police officers in charge of the case do not work on theories or psychological profiles, but according to a scientific approach: they always start from a fact, which opens a track, which they then explore until the end, close, and move on to another. This method is also a way to protect yourself from endless guesswork, or insanity, but it doesn’t always work. Several times, the track looks like a highway towards the fugitive, and the police are convinced that they will finally close this investigation. But they end up stumbling upon the worst thing ever, as was the case with the allusion to Emmanuel Teneur’s sailboat: coincidences.
Coincidence number 1. When the Ligonnès C5 was discovered in the Formula 1 car park in Roquebrune, the night watchman informed them that two reservations had been made in the name of Dupont Xavier, one on April 5 and the another on April 14. The hotel manager then specifies that the first reservation was actually made for April 6. That day, however, XDDL was in Nantes, probably digging the grave of Thomas, murdered the day before. Had he thought of accomplishing his crimes earlier or had he reserved a room for an accomplice, who might have been hiding something for him? The videos of April 5 and 6 are no longer available, but payment for the room was made with a Crédit Agricole credit card. The number gives a name, Faiçal E., and an address. Could it be an accomplice? The checks are launched immediately lead to a man who simply used “Dupont Xavier” as an assumed name - like Ligonnès - to book a night in the same hotel, the same year, the same month, within ten days.
Coincidence number 2. The liaison officer in Miami launches research around the various aliases used by XDDL, for operations of “mystery shopper” or to stay in hotels. In the FBI file, he finds a certain Xavier Laurent, one of Ligonnès’s favorite nicknames, installed in Jacksonville, north of Florida. Jacksonville is not just any city. This is where Hugues, the cousin of XDDL lived, and it is also this locality that Ligonnès and his friend Michel Rétif declared to customs in 1990 during their trip to the United States. At the very end of the personalized letter sent to Michel on April 8, Xavier Ligonnès seemed to allude to it: “I will think about you there. (Not the right to tell you where, but you went there with me...in November 90…a clue to dig. LOL).” But this Xavier Laurent is another twist of fate: the police come across a certain Evan Shaffer, a petty criminal who has chosen this alias to commit crimes.
Coincidence number 3. Ten days before the crimes, XDDL reconnects with a childhood sweetheart, Catherine K., whom he met in Versailles in the 1980s. Between March 22 and 24, they exchange text messages and try to find a date to meet the week of April 12, in Chamonix. These messages intrigue the investigators, some answers seem surprising, almost illogical, and they suspect Ligonnès of having wanted to ensure a logistical relay in his escape. A little later, a certain Patrick O. reports having seen XDDL in the queue of a Sixt car rental agency at Nice airport on April 17, 2011. By peeling the names of dozens of people having rented a car that day, the police officers miss the infarction: in capital letters, white on black, appears the surname of Catherine, who would have rented a vehicle at 1:30 am. A few hours later, their heart rate drops again: it was only a perfect disambiguation.
Each coincidence causes the same chain of reactions. First a eureka!, the certainty of having finally found the tiny detail from which to trace everything. The police then cast their nets like fishermen on the high seas, telephone or banking requisitions, requests for listings, identity checks. Then they wait. It can last from a few hours to several weeks, and inevitably it is a burning, nagging wait, tense by the fear that the track will fly away. Finally, there is the immense disappointment and the obligation to face reality again: Xavier Ligonnès is still nowhere to be found, a track has flown again, and we have to hoist the rock up the mountain again. Those who have worked or are still working on the affair strive to maintain a cold, rational, police facade. But little by little, by dint of chasing a shadow - not even a shadow, a ghost - obsession lurks. One of them, a police officer with a professional Protestant pastor, now out of the investigation, still returned until recently to consult the investigation file every week, saying he simply wanted to put the 12,000 pages of documents in order. For a year, a criminal analyst has also been mobilized. He enters all the elements of the file in a software which digests them and spits out, perhaps, new threads to draw. In the meantime, the two police officers who are still following the investigation - one at the PJ in Nantes, one at the OCRVP, in Paris - “live” the case, as their colleagues say. Among these thousands of pages there is no doubt a clue that has gone unnoticed or, better, a lead that has not yet been explored.
Track number 1. Who typed “fraternité saint-thomas becket” on Google on April 3 at 11:34 pm, before clicking on a link in the Cité-Catholique forum? Is it the same person who, the same night at 2:01 am, from an iPhone, did the search for “communion state mortal sin,” bringing it to the same forum? On April 8, the user of this phone will in any case send the search engine the request “hello Chacou”, which will lead him (her) again to the Cité-Catholique forum. Chacou was one of the pseudonyms of Xavier Ligonnès. Investigators saw crazier coincidences, but still: can it really be someone other than Xavier Ligonnès, who himself connected to Cité-Catholique almost every day of his escape? The last article published on the site about Saint-Thomas Becket, an ultra-traditionalist fraternity which practices mass in Latin, dates from January 2009. It indicates the name of its founder, Father Jean-Pierre Gac, and specifies this: “Born in the diocese of Blois where there are two communities (…), the fraternity has also extended in the diocese of Toulon - a parish is also entrusted to them in Ollioules.” Ollioules is located six kilometers from La Seyne-on-Mer, where XDDL spent its penultimate known night, and 94 kilometers from Roquebrune. Jean-Pierre Gac was questioned by the police but claimed to have never been in contact with the fugitive. Investigators have always believed in the possibility that Ligonnès took refuge in a monastery in the Var. They considered to search them one by one, before understanding that there are dozens and dozens of brotherhoods and fraternities, that they are not always castles of the Purple Rivers but sometimes simple farms, lost in the hinterland. To mount a search, it would be necessary to ensure that they do not communicate with each other, and therefore to visit them all at the same time. The examining magistrate quickly tempered the fervor of the police and declared the operation impossible.
Track number 2. Xavier Ligonnès had two secret Facebook accounts. The first is named after his favorite country singer, Waylon Jennings. One of his nieces had also found him a month before the crimes, sending him a message, “but who is behind this nickname?,” to which XDDL had immediately replied “How did you manage to arrive on the Waylon Jennings Facebook profile? Too clever! Microsoft Advantage??? Kiss.” The second account concerns a certain “George Town” residing in Nantes and is linked to one of Ligonnès’ many email addresses, [email protected]. The police send a requisition to the management of Facebook in Palo Alto to obtain the creation and connection logs of the two profiles. The answer comes in days: the first was created in February 2010, the second in December 2007, when France had barely discovered the social network. Above all, the response indicates that Ligonnès connected to the two accounts on the night of April 4 to 5, between the first assassinations and that of Thomas. The profiles have since been deleted but suggest he could have used them to communicate with a third party. Catherine K., the youthful lover that XDDL contacted a few days before the tragedy, also reported to the police that she had been approached by a certain Philippe Steiner, whom she did not know, around May 20. He sent her a strange message, suggesting that they might have had a relationship in the past. When she went to respond, the profile had already been deleted. Today there are almost 100 Facebook accounts on behalf of Waylon Jennings, some are created and deleted every day.
Track number 3. When the Ligonnès family is having their last meal on April 3, 2011, around 9 pm, a young woman walks through the glass doors of the police station on Place Waldeck-Rousseau in Nantes. Originally from a small village near Vannes, Julie is a BTS student and comes to file a complaint: the Twingo that her father lets her drive has been broken into, probably during the night. There was not much inside, but Julie reported the theft of her car radio as well as the vehicle’s logbook, which she normally stored in a small Renault gray faux leather pouch. This same pouch was found on April 22 in the dresser of the Ligonnès living room where Xavier used to store his papers, during the investigation the day after the discovery of the bodies. The police did not follow this track: they put the break-in of Julie’s car on the account of one of the Ligonnès sons, Arthur, who had already been arrested for theft of a bicycle and driving under the influence of cannabis. But why would Arthur have taken the vehicle papers with the car stereo, and why would he put them in the middle of his father’s papers? And if the theft was committed by Xavier Ligonnès a few hours before killing his family, how can this be explained? Was he able to steal other identity papers to facilitate his escape?
In this case, it is always about cars. Those imported by XDDL from the United States, the Citroën C5 from the escape, the vehicles he claimed had been stolen over the years: the first at the Brest police station in 1998, while living in Pornic, a second at the same time at the Saint-Nazaire police station, and then again, in Nantes, on May 17, 2006, a Golf convertible finally found then sold a few months later to a mechanic, a friend of Cédric M.
Cédric M. is never far away when it comes to cars. He is also a mechanic, that’s how Ligonnès met him in Vannes a few years earlier. He is one of the recipients of the departure letter, therefore a close friend. He was even the first employee of the RDC. Ligonnès regularly went to visit him in Locmalo in the heart of Morbihan, a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Nantes. With Cédric and his partner, Renaud, they went to the local creperie. They had lunch there together on March 31, 2011, four days before the crimes. In the village, it is said that Ligonnès took care of the dark accounts of the “guys,” who have quite a reputation. Could he have built up a slush fund there that no one would have found until now? Cédric and Renaud’s garage is not indicated by any sign. It is at the end of a road. In the yard, wrecks of American cars and a goat on a leash. Inside, Renaud is working on a shiny yellow Cadillac. His attitude is confusing. He is angry with the police who have never come to question him when he is, according to him, “the last to have seen [Xavier] alive. But I will not tell you when, because that the date is important,” he adds before returning to his Cadillac, wrench in hand.
To date, Renaud has still not been heard by investigators.
At the same time, reports continue to flow.
Ligonnès seen in Mulhouse, on the four lanes between Saint-Brieuc and Rennes in a Peugeot 308 and overtaking on the right, Ligonnès seen again in Tunis and Toulouse.
Ligonnès seen, but never caught.
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Next Section-Part 2D

Before traveling to Macau, knowing Macau, his history, and his heritage will make travel more interesting.
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https://preview.redd.it/mm4vjzut7zp41.jpg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=338b7f97cd124a1913ac2eb181d4284b20b4b48b
A Brief History Location & Time Population Language Currency Climate & Clothing Water & Electricity Healthcare & Hospitals Communication

1.A Brief History

Fishermen from Fujian and farmers from Guangdong were the first known settlers in Macao, when it was known as Ou Mun, or “trading gate”, because of its location at the mouth of the Pearl River downstream from Guangzhou (Canton). During ancient times port city was part of the Silk Road with ships loading here with silk for Rome.
Even after China ceased to be a world trade centre, Guangzhou prospered from seaborne business with the countries of Southeast Asia, so the local entrepreneurs welcomed the arrival of Portuguese merchant-explorers. They followed in the wake of Jorge Alvares, who landed in southern China in 1513, and set about finding suitable trading posts.
In the early 1550s the Portuguese reached Ou Mun, which the locals also called A Ma Gao, “place of A Ma”, in honour of the Goddess of Seafarers, whose temple stood at the entrance to the sheltered Inner Harbour. The Portuguese adopted the name, which gradually changes into the name Macao, and with the permission of Guangdong’s mandarins, established a city that within a short time had become a major entrepot for trade between China, Japan, India and Europe.
It also became the perfect crossroad for the meeting of East and West cultures. The Roman Catholic church sent some of its greatest missionaries to continue the work of St Francis Xavier, (who died nearby after making many converts in Japan). A Christian college was built, beside what is now today’s Ruins of St Paul’s, where students such as Matteo Ricci prepared for their work as Christian scholars at the Imperial Court in Beijing. Other churches were built, as well as fortresses, which gave the city an historical European appearance that distinguishes it to this day.
Portugal’s golden age in Asia faded as rivals like the Dutch and British took over their trade. However the Chinese chose to continue to do business through the Portuguese in Macao, so for over a century the British East India Company and others set up shop here in rented houses like the elegant Casa Garden. As Europe’s trade with China grew, the European merchants spent part of the year in Guangzhou, buying tea and Chinese luxuries at the bi-annual fairs, using Macao as a recreational retreat.
Following the Opium War in 1841, Hong Kong was established by Britain and most of the foreign merchants left Macao, which became a quaint, quiet backwater. Nevertheless it has continued to enjoy a leisurely multicultural existence and make daily, practical use of its historical buildings, in the process becoming a favourite stopover for international travellers, writers and artists.
Macao has developed in the past industries such as textiles, electronics and toys, while today has built up world class tourism industry with a wide choice of hotels, resorts, MICE facilities, restaurants and casinos. Macao’s economy is closely linked to that of Hong Kong and Guangdong Province, in particular the Pearl River Delta region, which qualifies as one of Asia’s ‘little tigers’. Macao provides financial and banking services, staff training, transport and communications support.
Today Macao is a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, and, like Hong Kong, benefits from the principle of “one country, two systems”. The tiny SAR is growing in size – with more buildings on reclaimed land – and in the number and diversity of its attractions. The greatest of these continues to be Macao’s unique society, with communities from the East and West complementing each other, and the many people who come to visit.

2.Location & Time

Macao is located in Guangdong province, on the western bank of the Pearl River Delta, at latitude 22º 14′ North, longitude 113º 35′ East and connected to Gongbei District by the Border Gate (Portas do Cerco) isthmus.
The Macao Special Administrative Region has an area of 32.9 km², comprised of the Macao Peninsula (9.3 km² and connected to Mainland China), Taipa (7.9 km²), Coloane (7.6 km²), the reclaimed area COTAI (6.0 km²), Zone A of the new district (1.4 km²) and Macao Administration Zone on the Artificial Frontier Island of Zhuhai-Macao of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (0.7km²). Three bridges connect Macao to Taipa (one of them is 2.5 km long, the other one is 4.4 km long and the third one is 2.1 km long).
Besides the Border Gate (Portas do Cerco) – the visitor can access Mainland China through the COTAI Frontier Post. Immigration and Customs is located in the reclaimed area between Taipa and Coloane.
Macao is eight hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time.

3.Population

The total population is estimated at around 679,600 . Over 90% of Macao residents are ethnic Chinese. The remaining includes Portuguese, Filipino and other nationalities.

4.Language

Chinese and Portuguese are the official languages while Cantonese being most widely spoken. The official languages are used in government departments in all official documents and communications. English is generally used in trade, tourism and commerce.

5.Currency

The Pataca (MOP) is divided into 100 avos and it is Macao’s official currency. There are banknotes and coins in the following denominations: Coins: 10, 20 and 50 avos; 1, 2, 5 and 10 Patacas. Banknotes: 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 Patacas.
By the decision of the Government the Pataca is linked to the Hong Kong dollar (HKD). The exchange rate is MOP103.20 = HKD100.00. There is an acceptable variation up to 10%. Roughly 8 Patacas is equivalent to 1 US Dollar.
Foreign currency can be changed in hotels, banks and authorised exchange dealers located all around the city. The Macau International Airport also provides currency exchange service. Banks open normally from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.. Most credit cards are accepted in many hotels, shops and restaurants.
According to the provisions of the Law, passengers arriving at Macao carrying cash or CBNIs, such as traveller’s cheques, cheques, bills of exchange, money orders and promissory notes, with value of or exceeding MOP 120,000.00, should use the Red Channel with a completed declaration form and make a declaration to the Customs officer. Passengers leaving Macao need to disclose truthfully the amount of cash or CBNIs carried when asked by a Customs officer, or they shall be liable to a fine of MOP 1,000.00 to MOP 500,000.00. Travelers who have a layover in Macao SAR and transit to another destination have no obligation of declaration. For more details, please visit the Macao Customs Service’s websdite: www.customs.gov.mo/cn/customs6.html

6.Climate & Clothing

Located in the subtropical climate zone, Macao has moderate climate conditions throughout the year. Annual average temperature is about 23ºC (73ºF) and ranges from 20ºC (68ºF) to 26ºC (79ºF). Humidity levels are high in the city, where the average annual relative humidity tops 79%. The average annual rainfall measures about 2,058 mm in Macao, with the rainy season falling between May and September every year. The Macao Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau will issue a rainstorm warning when the amount of precipitation over Macao is expected to reach about 50 mm in the next two hours.
October to December is the most pleasant season to visit Macao, when visitors can enjoy warm autumn days with low humidity. January, February and March are the winter months with relatively cold but sunny weather, when it slowly gets warm again in April. From May to September, the weather becomes hot and humid with more rainy days and occasional tropical storms (known as typhoons). The level of typhoon warning signals depends on the intensity and proximity of a typhoon to Macao. When signal No. 8 or above is hoisted, the cross-sea bridges will be closed for safety reasons including Governador Nobre de Carvalho Bridge, Friendship Bridge, the upper deck of Sai Van Bridge and Lotus Bridge; as an immediate measure, the enclosed lower deck of Sai Van Bridge will be opened provisionally for light automobiles to commute between Macao and Taipa. Outbound ferries and flights from the city will also be delayed or cancelled.
In summer, visitors are advised to wear light cotton clothes for a pleasant journey in Macao; while woolens are recommended along with a thick jacket or an overcoat to keep warm during winter. It is great to bring along cardigans or sweaters in spring (March to May) or autumn (September to November) as nights are cooler during the two seasons.
For more infomation please visit website of the Macao Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau

7.Water & Electricity

Macao’s water is supplied directly from Mainland China and is purified. Chlorine is added for extra protection. Distilled drinking water is supplied in all hotel rooms and in restaurants.
Electricity in Macao is at 230V, 50Hz. The power plugs used in Macao are of the three-pin, square-shaped or round-shaped type. It is suggested to check before using an electrical appliance.

8.Healthcare & Hospitals

Visitors are not required to produce any health certificates in Macao except under special circumstances occurring in the territory or surrounding regions. Visitors may visit any hospital or health centre in Macao should they need medical treatment or consultation. You may seek assistance from the following hospitals and pharmacies in Macao:
Hospital Centre S. Januário (Government) Address: Estrada do Visconde de S. Januário Enquiries: +853 2831 3731 (Provides 24-hour emergency services)
Island Emergency Station of Hospital Centre S. Januário (Government) Address: Block H (next to University Hospital), Macau University of Science and Technology, Avenida Wai Long, Taipa Enquiries: +853 2899 2230 (Provides 24-hour emergency services)
Kiang Wu Hospital (Private) Address: Estrada Coelho do Amaral Enquiries: +853 2837 1333 (Provides 24-hour emergency services)
University Hospital (Private) Address: Block H, Macau University of Science and Technology, Avenida Wai Long, Taipa Enquiries: +853 2882 1838
For less urgent cases, visitors may go to any health centre on Macao Peninsula, Taipa or Coloane Island. The most central one is the Tap Seac Health Centre located on Av. Conselheiro Ferreira de Almeida.

List of Health Centre

Name : Centro de Saúde Macau Oriental (Tap Seac) Address : Av. Conselheiro Ferreira de Almeida, Macau Telephone: +853 2852 2232
Name : Centro de Saúde Macau Norte (Bairro Fai Chi Kei) Address : Estrada Marginal de Patane, Macau Telephone: +853 2856 2922
Name : Centro de Saúde Porto Interior (Hoi Pong Koi) Address : Rua Constantino Brito, n.º 11, 4º – 7º andar, Macau Telephone: +853 2892 0024, +853 2892 0025
Name : Centro de Saúde de S. Lourenço (Fong Son Tong) Address : Trav. Inácio Baptista, n.º 2, c, Macau Telephone: +853 2831 3418
Name : Centro de Saúde Areia Preta (Hac Sa Wan) Address : Rua Central da Areia Preta, Lote de Terra 18 Telephone: +853 2841 3178
Name : Centro de Saúde dos Jardins do Oceano Address : Largo da Ponte, s/n, Taipa Telephone: +853 2881 3089
Name : Centro de Saúde Nossa Senhora do Carmo-Lago Address : Área A,1.º andar do Edifício do Lago, Estrada Coronel Nicolau de Mesquita da Taipa Telephone: +853 2850 0400
Name : Centro de Saúde da Ilha Verde Address : Rua Nova da Ilha Verde, Edifício Cheng I, Bloco 1, c Telephone: +853 2831 0033
Name : Posto de Saúde Coloane (Lou Wan) Address : Largo Presidente António Ramalho Eanes, Coloane Telephone: +853 2888 2176
Name : Posto de Saúde para os Idosos Taipa (Tam Chai) Address : Rua Regedor, Bairro Social da Taipa Bloco 9, C No.357J Telephone: +853 2882 7667
Name : Posto de Saúde Provisório de Seac Pai Van de Coloane Address : Lote CN4 de Seac Pai Van de Coloane, Edifício Lok Kuan, Bloco 5, c Telephone: +853 2850 2001
Source: Website of Health Bureau – Contact us, Portuguese version
In addition to Western clinics, visitors can visit traditional Chinese doctors in Macao. For detailed information regarding traditional Chinese medicine medical services, please contact the Macao Health Bureau (Enquiries: +853 2871 3105) or Kiang Wu Hospital (Enquiries: +853 2837 1333).
The pharmacies listed below are open overnight from 9:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m.:
Farmácia San Hau On Address: Rua de Xangai, No. 84, Centro Comercial Kuong Fat Enquiries: +853 2870 1697
Farmácia San Hau On II Address: Rua de Luís Gonzaga Gomes, No. 11 Enquiries: +853 2878 5705

9.Communication

Internet Services
Macao is one of the most ‘connected’ cities in the world. Macao Post and Telecommunications Bureau has been liaising with local organizations to offer free Wi-Fi services at different locations in Macao under a unified brand name “FreeWiFi.MO”. Now citizens and visitors can connect to a hotspot with Wi-Fi network name containing the word “FreeWiFi.MO” to enjoy free Wi-Fi service. For more service information or to find free Wi-Fi hotspots, please visit www.freewifi.mo.
In addition, visitors can enjoy free Internet facilities in public libraries. For opening hours and library addresses, please visit: www.library.gov.mo
Telephone Service
Country code for Macao is 853 and outgoing international code is 00.
Communication in Macao is convenient, with the telecommunications network covering the whole city. Public phones are located around the city, with local calls costing MOP1.00 per 5 minutes; the IDD direct-dial international telephone service connects to over 100 countries and territories around the world.
The Tourism Hotline on +853 2833 3000 provides comprehensive information about restaurants, hotels, sightseeing and tourist spots, museums, entertainment, shopping, transportation, etc.
If you would like to use your mobile phone while in Macao, please contact the information services below: 1000 – CTM 1118 – Hutchison Telecom 1628 – SmarTone Mobile Communications (Macau) Ltd. 1888 – China Telecom (Macau) Co., Ltd.
Postal Services
Postal services are comprehensive in Macao. The General Post Office is located in Senado Square, while postal branches can be found throughout the Macao Peninsula, Taipa and Coloane. Services include letter post, parcel and express mail service (EMS) to almost anywhere in the world.
Opening hours of General Post Office: 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. (Mondays – Fridays) 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (Saturdays)
For more information, please contact +853 2832 3666 or visit: www.ctt.gov.mo
The above is an introduction to Macau from 9 aspects. After you have a clear understanding of the history of a place, you can better understand the significance of the place’s landscape, cuisine and so on.