见证澳门20年来的沧桑变化

德国人夏礼贤因为语言的机缘巧合来到澳门，这一住就是20年。在这期间，他亲眼见证了澳门经济的腾飞、国际地位的增强。作为一名常住居民，他已把澳门当做了自己心中的家。
It is not unusual for foreigners to live in big Chinese cities like Beijing or Shanghai. But there are also some Westerners who decide to settle down in small yet charming places in China. In today's program, we will tell you the story of a German living in Macau for more than 20 years and share his bond with the unique city. Our reporter Damin brings us the details.

Harald Bruning was born in Germany in 1953. He studied political science and political economy at the University of Munich. During that time, he also learned Spanish and Portuguese as a hobby. Early in the 1980s, Bruning moved to Hong Kong, because of family connections in Asia. That provided him an opportunity to visit Macau, a close neighbor of Hong Kong.

"At that time, April 1980, I came to Macau first time. I went to the Ruins of St. Paul, the city center, the City Hall, Leal Senado - Macau's typical and best known tourist sites. But at that time Macau was very poor, underdeveloped. The monuments were not maintained yet. That only began later. And there was huge difference between Hong Kong and Macau. Hong Kong was a booming city, while Macau was really lagging behind."

After working in Hong Kong for two years as an economist, Bruning's passion for journalism led to him joining the United Press International. Because of his Portuguese proficiency, Macau became the ideal destination for him.

"Very few people speak Portuguese in Europe outside Portugal. So I moved to Macau and actually I liked the place from the very beginning, because of the language, but also Macau is a really unique place. And then I became a correspondent in Macau for Hong Kong's Standard newspaper, later for the Reuters and the South China Morning Post, for Eastern Express, short time for Bloomberg. So I was some of the foreign correspondents in Macau for the past 20 years. It was very rewarding and interesting experience for me."

Before Macau's handover to China in 1999, Bruning had already lived in Macau for around 15 years and regarded the region as his second home. He also shared the excitement with local Chinese, about the handover ceremony on December 20 that year.

"I remember people were very happy that finally they could take charge of their own city. I covered the handover myself for the Reuters and the South China Morning Post at that time. I was very busy overnight. Also when the People's Liberation Army came to Macau, people also applauded, because they hope Macau's crime problem and public security problems would be eliminated. That was the more joyful moment at that time since I've been living in Macau."

After 1999, Macau's economy began to thrive, thanks to robust measures by the government of the Macau Special Administrative Region. Its average GDP growth hit 15 percent annually.

The city has gradually become a world renowned tourist destination. Like Monte Carlo in Europe and Las Vegas in the USA, tourism is largely driven by the gambling industry. In 2004, Bruning thought the time was ripe for him to set up the Macau Post Daily, the very first English-language newspaper in Macau.

"You see all major cities in Asia have an English newspaper. There are English-language newspapers in Bangkok, in Indonesia. In Beijing, you have China Daily. In Japan, Taipei and in all the cities, English is not an official language. But English is the universal language nowadays - like it or not, but it is a fact. While English is a communication tool, Portuguese is a matter of identity. So we don't compete with the Portuguese and we don't have any intention to push away the Portuguese language from the media circle."

Although there are just 10 employees at the newspaper, the Macau Post Daily has established itself and become a favorite for international visitors and local people, due to its extensive coverage and impartiality.

Bruning hopes the newspaper could help overseas travelers know more about Macau and improve local people's English skills through reading.

Bruning describes himself as a workaholic, spending most of his time in the office at the weekend, pondering a reporting plan and news focus for the coming week. Editors in the newspaper attribute that to their boss's affection for Macau. Gilbert Humphrey is one of them. He was born in Indonesia, but his family has been in Macau for five generations.

"People like Mr. Bruning are those people who make me want to be more proud of being Chinese. Because when I look at him, he is somehow looking more like Chinese than I am. He has been here for so long and to look at him, he is really proud of living in Macau. He calls himself someone from Macau as well. It makes me feel I should be like that as well."

As well as being the director of the Macau Post Daily, Bruning is also the co-owner of a coffee shop in the city. Interestingly, the shop is also related to journalists.

"We opened the cafe for a very funny reason - usually many journalists like to drink coffee, to keep them awake, not to get tired. So my colleagues and I used to go to a particular coffee shop for over 10 years. But unfortunately that coffee shop closed because the owner retired. So we have no more coffee shop to go to so we decided to open our own coffee shop."

Bruning says the coffee is imported from East Timor, which he believes is one of the best in the world. Through this he manages to connect Macau with another Portuguese-speaking region and he is able to do something for East Timor's fledging economy.

Bruning's office is located in a downtown area of Macau, better known as the Historic Centre of Macau. It is a collection of over 20 locations blending Chinese and Western cultures. Bruning says harmony and tolerance is a major attraction of Macau's identity, which is not only reflected in its architecture.

"Multi-nation harmony is a strong aspect of Macau's identity. I've lived here for almost 25 years. I've known Macau for 30 years. One of the main points of Macau - making Macau such a nice place to everybody is that there is no racial conflict. Also the harmony of religions - in Macau there are many kinds of religions - Taoism, Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Muslim. There is no problem in Macau in religion."

According to Bruning, Macau's tourism industry consists of more than just the casinos. He recommends visitors spend more than two days in Macau, visiting its various museums, including the Maritime Museum, the Grand Prix Museum, and History Museum, checking out stylish Macanese restaurants as well as relaxing themselves along the Black Sand Beach in the countryside.