I had to cancel a business trip to Hong Kong a while back on the way to the airport as that was the first day of the protests taking over the airport. Air Canada said that my flight would take off but it didnt know where it would land as events were unfolding fast and while planes were allowed to land in HK that day, none were allowed to depart. Air Canada didnt want to be accumulating planes at the HK airport. So I cancelled and rebooked after things settled down and changed meeting location from HK to Macau, landing in HK. The ferry between the two is neat as you dont leave the secure side of the arrivals - the ferry is just like another connection.
Anyways - was there for fewer than 24hrs and this is what I saw:
I took the new bridge from the airport to Macau. Its the most incredible bridge Ive ever seen. 55km long to get you from HK to Macau. Easiest way to do that was a shuttle bus - there were maybe 10 people on it? Most interesting is that the entire time on that bridge, I didnt see another vehicle going either direction. I could see as far as the eye could see ahead and behind - not one vehicle. Crazy to think that you have both directions of a 55km bridge to yourself (although if another vehicle was 20km ahead going in same direction I wouldnt have seen it).
I had an long business meeting so we booked a room in the Macau conf center - connected to all the hotels. It was massive - maybe the biggest conf center Ive ever been in. What else was going on there? ZERO. We were the only occupied room in the whole place - hundreds of meeting rooms.
The ferry terminal in Macau is a gorgeous new building. Big. Multiple ferries per day from two different ferry providers. EMPTY. Just like if you would walk into the grand entrance of Central Station in NYC and you are the only person in it. I walked from one side to the other and saw employees only one pass. My ferry probably sat 800 people. Maybe 25 on board?
It was bizarre. All these amazing new things but no users. Macau itself was full of tourists I guess - shopping and restaurants all busy - but the infrastructure between it and HK and the conf center ghost towns. I thought that it was interesting.