The Golden Week peak tourism season is bad news for students in Macau. With 120,000 to 150,000 mainland visitors pouring in through the borders every day, buses and taxis are packed. One small accident can cause a huge traffic jam, forcing students to arrive late for classes. Macau's transportation network is simply not designed to serve so many tourists. Currently, there are two bridges connecting the Macau peninsula and Taipa island, and one of them is always congested. The older two-lane bridge has to be shut down whenever an accident occurs. This forces all Macau-Taipa traffic to be diverted to the newer, four-lane bridge, causing traffic jams there as well. At about 4pm on October 4, a crash involving two buses on the old bridge resulted in 20 passengers - 18 adults and two children - being sent to hospital. The bridge was closed for nearly an hour, leading to heavy traffic congestion throughout the enclave. This seriously affected many students, who would have normally reached home within 10 minutes. The behaviour of some mainland tourists doesn't help either. When last Monday's accident was just clearing up, I was on a mini-bus that stopped at the New Yaohan department store. Although the bus was already full, with about a dozen passengers standing, a group of mainlanders were determined to get in. When the driver politely told them to wait for the next bus, they threatened not to pay the fare. Macau teenagers who join the tourism, hospitality or gaming sectors for their summer internships are likely to encounter unruly mainland tourists. Perhaps witnessing the behaviour of tourists during Golden Week provides lessons for aspiring hospitality professionals. Executives at a five-star hotel called The Landmark Macau are prepared to deal with rowdy customers. 'A customer who yells at a male staff member will stop screaming if we send a female staff member to listen to his complaint,' one executive said.
