Jumping Off Buildings in Macau (June 2013)

There are lots of us heading for the Wuhan Train Station on a Friday after school in June. So many, in fact, that it is sort of like an end of the year school trip / party. We have eleven “jumpers” and five who have decided not to jump for money or health or other reasons. They may be talked into it when the time comes though – that remains to be seen. We have been organizing this event for over a month now with the help of a few of our colleagues. We have been able to recruit this present group of adventure seekers and some die-hard cheerleaders.

Our train departs and travels south toward Guangzhou for about four or five hours. We all have nice comfortable seats and the atmosphere is a little “party-like” . . . OK, a lot “party-like”.

When we arrive at the Guangzhou Station, we make our way to our hotel and settle in for the night. It is early on Saturday morning and we have all made our way back to the train station to board for our next short trip to Zhuhai. Once here we have to go through some long line ups to get past immigration. Even though, Macau is supposedly part of China, we still have to do the passport thing and clear customs, the same as one would have to do going in or out of Hong Kong.

We finally get through and after what seems like hours we arrive in Macau. Our jump time is in the early afternoon so we have just enough time to check into the hotel and unpack our “jumping” clothes. Macau is a gambling town, sort of like the Las Vegas of China. We rent two vans to take us all to the A.J. Hackett Tower. On our way there we pass through the city centre and past the big Casinos, which we will no doubt visit later. Some members of our group are feeling a little nervous as we unload at the tower.

On check-in, the clerks try to convince Patti that she should jump with everyone else. She almost does but when the agent compares Bungy Jumping to riding on a roller coaster, Patti finally opts out. It is a good thing, because we would likely have to get a job right in Macau to pay for our trip back to Wuhan.

Bungy Jumping is not cheap by any means. You can actually measure the cost in dollars per second, the same as if the bank notes were escaping from one’s pocket at a comparable rate.

The elevator ride to the jumping concourse of the tower seems like a long one. When we reach the top, we are given T-shirts that we must wear during the jump.

We get some instructional training and we “suit-up” for the “fall”. Lindsay is the first to go and she opts for the vertical zip-line which means that instead of free-falling for the entire jump, you only free-fall until you reach about 88 mph and then a friction line takes over and you glide down the rest of the way. It would be comparable to jumping out of a plane with a parachute that opens when you hit 88 mph.

The rest of the jumpers do the regular bungy jump in a jumping order determined by body weight. Adam who is a tall, handsome athletic type is second behind Lindsay. He, like most of the other jumpers decides to run off the platform.

When my turn comes, I opt for the traditional forward swan dive so as not to display my lack of running athleticism.

There is some sort of problem with the harness when it is TJ’s turn to jump and he is on the platform for a long time making everyone and himself more and more nervous the longer he has to wait. He finally gets away and everything goes well. Angel is the last of our group to jump and she does a backward dive to finish things off. Everyone is high on adrenaline for sometime afterward.

Some of the group goes out to party, some go gambling right away, some go shopping and Patti and I, along with Steve and Nancy go to the Portuguese Quarter of the city for some great food and some good sights. Later we go to the Casinos to do some light gambling.

By the end of the day everyone is exhausted. Sunday arrives and everyone does a return trip to Wuhan. Bungy Jumping will be something that all of us talk about whenever we think of our visit to Macau.