Rotunda de Carlos da Maia, also known as the Three Lamps in Chinese, was built in 1919 in honour of José Carlos da Maia, the 105th governor of Macao who served between 1914 and 1916. The place is named “Three Lamps” because of an iron light post standing in its centre. Although there are four lamps on top of the post, with one facing upward and the other three pointing to the three angles of a triangle, one can only see three lamps from any given angle. That is why the place is known by the local residents as “Three Lamps”. The area near Rotunda de Carlos da Maia was surrounded by garden villas which made it the place with the strongest European flavour in the San Kio neighbourhood. As political situations in Southeast Asia changed in the 1960s, a large number of Chinese people migrated to Macao and gathered around the area near Rotunda de Carlos da Maia. The place gradually became an “Overseas Chinese Village”. As population grew, garden villas were demolished and five-storey residential buildings were constructed. The area thus took on a new appearance. The European-style building in this photo was a municipal school in the 1930s, which was later demolished and reconstructed to become the Labour Affairs Bureau. Nowadays it is a multifunction public venue, the Complexo da Rotunda de Carlos da Maia.