Ilha Verde 青洲區

From island to border district

The old island is Ilha Verde Hill (青洲山), a granite hill given as 57 metres high in Macau's heritage list and counted as the sixth-highest hill on the peninsula. Jesuits bought land on the island in 1828 to build a seminary, and the heritage list notes the remains of a convent still on the hill. The Portuguese government built barracks there in 1865, and because the island lay close to the border it stayed a military zone for decades, which left the hill's vegetation relatively undisturbed. In 1889, according to the heritage list, the Portuguese authorities built a causeway from near Lin Fung Temple (蓮峰廟), today's Avenida do Conselheiro Borja (青洲大馬路); the embankment was widened step by step until the island became part of the peninsula. The island was once known for crabs, which disappeared after the Ilha Verde cement works, Macau's earliest cement factory, opened in 1887. Its old scenery is remembered in 'Misty Rain over Green Island' (青洲煙雨), one of the traditional Ten Views of Macau (濠鏡十景).

Ilha Verde Hill

The hill was placed on Macau's heritage inventory in 1976 and is legally protected as a site of protective value. A 2012 survey of old trees counted 36 trees over a century old, of nine species, on the hill; the oldest was 220 years old, and one is Macau's only old Macaranga (血桐) tree. At least two species recorded as unique to the hill, the ant Leptanilla macauensis and the mite Meristolohmannia macaoensis, were found on the hill by the Macau biologist Leong Chi Man (梁志文).

Getting oriented

Ilha Verde belongs to Our Lady of Fatima Parish. Land reclaimed west of the hill in the early 2000s holds the Macau side of the Zhuhai-Macau Cross-border Industrial Zone, with its own crossing into Zhuhai, and the Qingmao Port (青茂口岸) border checkpoint is also here. The University of Saint Joseph (聖若瑟大學) moved to its main campus in Ilha Verde in September 2017, and the Ilha Verde Convent (青洲修道院) stands in the district.

Highlights

• Ilha Verde Hill 青洲山: Granite hill listed on the heritage inventory since 1976, with a convent ruin, century-old trees and two species unique to it.
• Qingmao Port 青茂口岸: Border checkpoint in Ilha Verde.
• University of Saint Joseph 聖若瑟大學: Main campus in Ilha Verde since September 2017.