The Dragon Garden at the Macau Scientific and Cultural Centre (CCCM) was conceived to keep alive the memory of Macau, when the Special Administrative Region of Macau was transferred from Portuguese administration to Chinese administration on 20 December 1999.

Inspired by the Orient, it is in fact an intercultural space where Chinese and Portuguese influences mix, for example, in the traditional Portuguese calçada paving stones. There we find the design of a dragon’s undulating, scaly body. Designed by the architects Francisco Caldeira Cabral and Elsa Severino, it was completed in 1999, at the same time as CCCM was opened. The Centre also contains a museological space and a library, as well as an education service and a research area.

In the Dragon Garden we find important traces of Chinese influence, in the bamboo that flanks the walls of the space or the small pond where fish swim, including some auspiciously coloured red. Besides these elements, there is also a beautiful mandala that unites the main deities of the Sky and Earth in an inverted position, suggesting a meditative moment.