Chinese Octagonal Pavilion Library

The Chinese Octagonal Pavilion Library is a very special looking building on a busy crossroads in the centre of the city, close to the Santa Rosa School, and adjacent to the San Francisco Garden.

The unique eight-sided design, which gave it its name is very small but impossible to miss because of its classic Chinese design features.

The Chinese Octagonal Pavilion Library represents a part of Macao’s history of education in the early 20th century.

As most of Macao’s Chinese citizens were then illiterate, the Octagonal Pavilion Library was built with funds raised by the community to become the first Chinese library in an effort to promote literacy.

Today the library continues to offer its original purpose. However over the last 50 years at some stages it was used as an eatery and snooker room for various reasons.

In 1947, Mr. Ho Yin, then vice presidentof the Macao Chamber of Commerce, bought the Pavilion and presented it to the Chamber which operated it as a “reading room” for public use it was later renamed Octagonal Pavilion Library.

The furniture and bookshelves were custom-built to fit into the octagonal structure and are in use to this day. Many of the bookshelves had their locks broken and as they are irreplaceable the doors have been removed.

The Octagonal Pavilion Library, in it’s current guise has a history of more than 60 years, with it’s methods of operation remaining pretty much unchanged, The only change is that most of its readers are no longer students, but middle-aged citizens.

The library is a vital part of the collective memory of generations of Macao residents. Regular visitors to this pavilion spend their spare time reading newspapers and magazines, tourists also drop in, guide books in hand. The Octagonal Pavilion Library has witnessed the raft of changes in the city and it has unobtrusively become part of Macao’s history.

The Octagonal Pavilion Library opens from 9 am to 12 am and 7 pm to 10 pm; it is closed on Mondays and public holidays.

(Source: IPIM)

Other Macau attractions nearby:

• San Francisco Garden
• Macau Security Forces Museum
• Rua do Campo
• House 29 Rua do Campo (Kao Ke Ning Mansion)
• Wallace Fountain
• Military Club

Nearby Macau Hotels

• Casino Lisboa
• Grand Lisboa
• Sintra Hotel
• President Hotel
• Holiday Inn