Guia Cable Car

Above the trees of Flora Garden, the cabins travel toward the park on Guia Hill’s slope, linking the lower and upper stations. The ride opened in nineteen ninety-seven, replacing a long staircase that was especially difficult for older people and families with children. The stations are only one hundred eighty-six meters apart, but in eighty seconds the view shifts from the garden’s straight avenues to the steep green slope.

On September twenty-first, two thousand twenty-one, all nine cabins of the Guia Cable Car remained at their stations. There had been no accident. Specialists from the municipal service noticed wear during the annual inspection and suspended operations themselves. The main steel cable needed replacing—a component that supports four passengers in each cabin.

This kind of repair could not be entrusted to an ordinary city workshop. The cable car was designed by the Swiss firm ROVEMA: in nineteen ninety-five, it was contracted to build it and provide maintenance for the first three years. The city’s clients wanted to link the entrance to Flora Garden with the park on the slope of Guia Hill. In nineteen ninety-seven, the cabins replaced the long climb up the stairs; this short route was especially important for older people and families with children.

Now specialists from the manufacturer were needed again. They were to replace around four hundred fifty meters of cable, join its ends, conduct tests, and obtain a safety certificate. Until that document was issued, municipal employees were not permitted to carry passengers.

A European crew was supposed to come to Macao, but pandemic restrictions delayed the trip month after month. The cabins stood idle for almost eleven months. Only in May two thousand twenty-two did the specialists arrive, complete quarantine, and begin work. Flora Garden was closed in its entirety for one day, and an area near the upper station was cordoned off: the long cable was pulled across the slope above the public park. Splicing was followed by adjustment and trial runs. On August sixteenth, passengers were allowed back into the cabins.

The two stations are only one hundred eighty-six meters apart, while the cable replaced then was almost two and a half times longer. A cabin crosses the visible stretch in about eighty seconds. Almost eleven months went into what a passenger cannot see from the cabin: waiting for the specialists, splicing the steel cable, testing the system, and obtaining permission for those eighty seconds.