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MACAO GETS A FACE LIFT BEFORE KEY TRANSITION

A mania for making money has moved mountains in this Portuguese enclave, where life once was lax, siestas long and Lisbon far away.

The changed lifestyle and the changed map are typical of this part of the Chinese coast in the Pearl River delta, where look-alike white skyscrapers have mushroomed over the last three years, and where landmarks and islands were sacrificed to perhaps the world’s greatest construction boom.

Cliffs and mountains in China have been removed to serve as landfill for high-rises and to create the $1 billion man-made island that serves as a new airport, the key to the enclave’s perceived future as a gateway to southern China.

Barge owner Wang Tsi has plied the murky waters here for two years, carting earth from China to reclaim land from the sea for Macao’s development boom. “In that time the cost of Chinese land has gone up five times,” he said.

Off Hong Kong, two islands were leveled to provide dirt for the British colony’s own $2 billion offshore airport and coastal road and rail connections.

The sea between Macao’s offshore islands of Taipa and Coloane was filled in by 2,000 vessels carrying dirt and rock from China. Teeming wildlife on the mangrove-covered islands was eradicated.

Gone, too, are Macao’s drowsy days: The obligatory 30-minute snooze for civil servants after a 90-minute lunchbreak was canceled June 1.

Concrete tenement towers and chrome and marble skyscrapers now tower over Macao’s winding backstreets, stucco churches and flamingo-colored mansions, the last relics-together with a fabulous cuisine and excellent Portuguese wines-of four centuries as a Portuguese colony.

Lisbon’s administration has allowed the building boom to continue unchecked, bowing to the development zeal of China, which reclaims sovereignty of the enclave in 1999.

China’s government has granted far more political concessions to Macao than to nearby Hong Kong, which reverts to China in 1997.

“China must have one successful case of transition to convince Taiwan that there can be a successful reunification with the mainland,” said Jorge Costa Oliveira, head of Macao’s Legal Department, in explaining Beijing’s soft line toward the enclave.

“For Portugal, Macao is the end of an empire. We need Macao’s transition to be successful to redeem our collective memory, which is still traumatized by what happened (to our colonies) in Africa,” he said.

Under the Basic Law worked out between the two countries, Macao is exempt from China’s death penalty and life prison sentences. Beijing also has allowed the principles of the United Nations Charter of Human Rights to be included in Macao’s new constitution. The Portuguese code of law will be kept. Portuguese remains one of the two official languages, and direct elections, instituted in 1976, will be maintained.

In contrast, China already has vetoed Hong Kong’s last-minute bid to elect a more independent assembly. It also squabbles over the British colony’s expenditures for a new transport infrastructure and bickers over the laws in force during the 50 years when Hong Kong and Macao will remain China’s Special Administrative Regions with a promised measure of independence.

“We have managed the transition in a different way than Hong Kong,” said Mira Gomes, political adviser to Macao’s Portuguese governor.

From the terraces of hotels like the famous Bellavista, guests today see the deeply scarred mountainsides of China and hear dynamite explosions in the mountain quarries at night. Reclaimed land will add 20 percent to Macao’s 7-square-mile territory when the enclave is handed over.

“The Portuguese never cared about their colony. It’s only lately they have rediscovered Macao,” complained Gary Ngai, vice president of the Macao Institute of Culture. “Now, four years before the enclave is handed over to China, we give crash courses in Portuguese for our Chinese citizens, we are rewriting textbooks on Macao history and training Chinese lawyers in Portuguese laws.”

Macao’s metamorphosis began in 1989 when self-made Hong Kong tycoon Stanley Ho was granted a gambling license and turned the sleepy hollow into a poor man’s Las Vegas of the Orient.

Macao’s eight casinos are a far cry from Las Vegas or Monte Carlo. Ragged gamblers from China spit and chain-smoke in gaming rooms that more closely resemble opium dens.

The enclave is gambling on a future policy to its boost population from 380,000 to 1 million within three years by granting residency permits to any Chinese who buys real estate valued at $50,000.

Already 105,000-one in four inhabitants-has a Portuguese passport. This gives them automatic entry into all member nations of the European Union.

“I still haven’t made up my mind whether to leave or not in 1999. How do we know the Chinese will respect our passports after the handover?” said Ngai, echoing a common concern.