Guerras vãs

ªMACAU was on the tip of the peninsula, and in ten minutes you could walk from the Praya on one side to the beach on the other, and in twenty minutes from the center of the town to the frontier across the peninsula neck, where you could see the Red China flag flying down the road - though of course in that heat you never did walk, but took trishaws everywhere. Macau had flourished for centuries as the gateway to China, but now the gateways was closed and there was no trade any longer, no industry, no business - nothing to keep the town alive except opium and gambling and girls. And at the hotel where we were staying you could get all three - the gambling on either of the two floors devoted to casinos, and the opium and girls in your room by pressing the bell and asking the floor boy. And for that matter the floor boy would also provide a go-between with the casino, so that if you believed in doing things thoroughly you could gamble and smoke opium and have a girl at the same time."

"The World of Suzie Wong" by Richard Mason (novel published in 1957)