Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro and Riviera Hotel

Completed in 1918, the Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro of nowadays is about 620 metres long and 11 metres wide. The government by then named the section of the avenue that spanned from Senado Square to the Interior Harbor as Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro and the section from Senado Square to the Praia Grande as Avenida do Coronel Mesquita. Some years later, the government did away with the name Avenida do Coronel Mesquita and the entire avenue was designated as Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro. Yet, the populace used to refer it as “San Ma Lo” (New Road).

The site of Nam Tung Commercial Building was the Riviera Hotel of the old days, the first hotel in Macao opened by foreigners. As a British investment, it was fitted with luxurious facilities and the favorite choice of hotel by foreign tourists and diplomatic officials. In the summer of 1891, a wealthy merchant from Hawaii, Chan Fong, bought over the hotel during his visit of Macao and renamed it into “Sei Hoi Fong Iun”. After Chan’s death, the hotel changed hands and was reopened in 1928 under the name of Riviera Hotel, where Gao Jainfu held an exhibition of his works in 1945. It was closed down in 1969, demolished in 1971 and the Nam Tung Building was built on the site in 1974. By September 1998, the building was torn down and replaced by the 25-storey Nam Tung Commercial Building.