Macau can't yet compete with Hong Kong in shopping terms, but it is taking giant strides, combining high street stores with intriguing markets, side-street Cantonese pharmacies and funky boutiques. Upscale hotels, such as Wynn, Grand Emperor, Landmark and Macau's hospitality stalwart, Mandarin Oriental, all feature brand shopping malls. The Venetian resort on the Cotai Strip features 360 luxury stores flanking man-made canals - with gondola access, naturally, provided by a singing gondolier. 

The charming Livraria Portugues, Rua S Domingos 18-20, stocks excellent history books on Macau, plus fiction and non-fiction titles, magazines, postcards, posters and souvenirs. You can also pick up a copy of the English-language newspaper The Macau Post Daily, and Portuguese-language Porto Final, Jorno Tribuna and Hoge Macau.

Winnie Chen designs hand-made silver women's jewellery using precious stones (including several shades of jade, moonstone and blue and red spinel from around the world. You can find her store, Celosa, on the funky Travessa Anjos (No. 25) boutique street. Look for fine replica and reproduction antique Chinese furniture at Kin Seng Mobilias at 19d Rua de Sao Paulo (tel: 2830 2565).

For neatly packaged Chinese medicinal products, visit Eu Yan Sang, 48 Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro, but for real McCoy Chinese pharmacies head down Rua dos Marcadores. You may not want to buy the multiple varieties of dried fish displayed at Companhia de Mariscos Secos San Chiong Bon (No. 74) or the Chinese medicinal products housed in jars at Farmacia Chinesa Man Cheong Tong (No. 44) (note the counter-top abacus used as a calculator), but they make for great sightseeing.

Electronics, camera and computer products and accessories are the specialities of reliable Hong Kong-based Fortress, which has a branch at Rua Leste de Mercado, just off Senado Square.