A novelist seeking to create the perfect fictional tax haven might just as well set the plot in Macao, the tiny Chinese special administrative region on the south-west shores of the Pearl river delta.

The centuries-old Portuguese colony, which reverted to Chinese sovereignty in 1999, boasts all the necessary romantic elements: a cultural blend of east and west, casinos and cobbled streets, and an eclectic social mix of Jesuit priests, femme fatales and North Korean rogues. It even has a Grand Prix.