Comprehensive information and links about Macau

Macau ; Traditional Chinese: 中華人民共和國澳門特別行政區; Simplified Chinese: 中华人民共和国澳门特别行政区; short form ; also informally known as 馬交; see Names), is a small territory on the southern coast of China. Administered by Portugal until 1999, it was the oldest European colony in China, dating to the 16th century. The administrative power (in Portuguese "potência administrante") over Macau was transferred to the People's Republic of China in 1999, and it is now a Special Administrative Region of the PRC. Macau has played a unique and influential role in relations between China and the West, especially between the late 16th and 19th centuries.

Residents of Macau mostly speak Cantonese natively; Mandarin, Portuguese, and English are also spoken. The Macanese language is a distinctive creole that was spoken by the Macanese, an ethnic group of mixed Asian and Portuguese ancestry. (However, is also used in the broader sense to describe any permanent resident of Macau.)

Besides historical colonial relics, Macau's biggest attraction is its gambling industry and casinos. Though many forms of gambling are legal here, the most popular game is Pai Gow, played with Chinese dominoes. Gamblers from Hong Kong often take one-day excursions to Macau; ferry service by hydrofoil to and from Hong Kong is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

table ) means "Inlet Gates". The "gates" refer to two erect gate-like mountains of Nantai (Chinese: 南台; Hanyu Pinyin: span , as it is geographically situated at "Cross' Door". Macau is also known as Hou Keng Ou (壕鏡澳; pinyin: is the traditional Chinese name of the place, it is common among the Cantonese-speaking population of the territory to use the Portuguese name when speaking in Cantonese, pronouncing it (Jyutping romanization), occasionally rendering it phonetically as 馬交 in Chinese characters.

The form "Macao" was the original Portuguese spelling, and has been retained in most European languages. In modern Portuguese, the correct spelling is "Macau". During the 20th century, the official spelling "Macau" became more and more common in English-language sources, including most print media.

Since the handover of sovereignty, the government of Macau considers "Macao" the official English spelling of the name, whereas "Macau" remains the official spelling in Portuguese. This is the practice followed in official documents such as passports and immigration forms.

The pinyin tran has occasionally been used in English as if it were the official name for Macau. However, this is not the case, as only "Macao" is official in English.

"The Chapel of St. Francis Xavier (聖方濟各聖堂) on Coloane island, with a forecourt displaying the territory's distinctive striped tiling." The Chapel of St. Francis Xavier (聖方濟各聖堂) on Coloane island, with a forecourt displaying the territory's distinctive striped tiling.

Macau was first settled by the Portuguese in 1557. Beginning in 1670, Portugal leased the territory although there was no transfer of sovereignty. Macau prospered as a port and was the subject of repeated attempts by the Dutch to conquer it in the 17th century.

After the House of Braganza regained control of Portugal from the Spanish Habsburgs in 1640, Macau was granted the official title of , in older Portuguese writings) never recognized Spanish sovereignty, and thus it is considered by historians as a (now former) part of Portugal that was never surrendered. Realistically, the Habsburgs could never have changed this situation anyway since they were heavily involved in European wars and Macau was far away. Additionally, the successful, decades-long resistance against Dutch privateers demonstrated that Macau was not a soft target.

With Hong Kong established as a British Crown Colony, Macau's status as the major regional trading centre declined due to the fact that larger ships were drawn to the deep water port of Victoria Harbour. In 1849, Portugal declared the colony independent of China. This was recognised by the Chinese government in 1887.

In 1955, the Salazar regime declared Macau, as well as other Portuguese colonies, an "Overseas Province" of Portugal.

Although Macanese culture had always been a mixture between Chinese and Portuguese this did not always come about peacefully. Chinese citizens efforts to establish their own identity were often counter to the aims of the Portuguese government.

In 1966 residents tried to obtain a licence for a private school in Taipa, the first of two islands connected to and forming part of Macau. After being rejected many times they went ahead and started building without permits. On November 15, 1966, the Portuguese police arrested the school officials and beat construction workers, residents, and press reporters. As a result, Chinese teachers and students gathered at the Governor’s Palace to protest, some even got inside the Palace to cite the quotations of Mao Zedong and sang Chinese revolutionary songs. On December 3 the government ordered them to be arrested. This stirred up the anger of the general public and more people came to protest. They pulled down the statue of Colonel Vicente Nicolau de Mesquita at Largo do Senado at the city centre, and burnt down archive documents - some irreplaceable - at the Leal Senado Building and the Holy House of Mercy. Portuguese soldiers from Africa, who came to Macau on holiday, were called in and martial law was declared. As a result of the protests, 11 people died and 200 were injured.

The Chinese people adopted a "three no's" approach as a means to continue their struggle with the Government — no taxes, no service, no selling to the Portuguese. They were successful and on January 29, 1967 the Portuguese government of Macau signed a statement of apology. This marked the beginning of equal treatment and recognition of Chinese identity and of Chinese control of the colony.

After the leftist military coup of 1974, the now democratic Portuguese government was determined to relinquish all its overseas possessions, but the People's Republic of China did not favour Macau's immediate return to Chinese sovereignty. In 1976, Lisbon redefined Macau as a , and granted it a large measure of administrative and economic autonomy. In addition, Portugal and the PRC agreed to regard Macau as 'a Chinese territory under Portuguese administration'. This status was made anomalous by the agreement in 1985 to return Hong Kong to China, and in 1987, an agreement, known as the "Joint Declaration" was made to make Macau a Special Administrative Region of the PRC. The Macau Special Administrative Region finally came into being on December 20, 1999.

The chief executive is appointed by the People's Republic of China's central government after selection by an election committee, whose members are nominated by corporate bodies. The chief executive appears before a cabinet, the Executive Council, of between 7 and 11 members. Edmund Ho, a community leader and banker, is the first China-appointed chief executive of the Macau SAR, having replaced General de Rocha Vieira on December 20, 1999.

The legislative organ of the territory is the Legislative Assembly, a 27-member comprising 10 directly elected members, 10 appointed members representing functional constituencies and seven members appointed by the chief executive. The Legislative Assembly is responsible for general lawmaking and like many other legislatures, it has power to impeach the Chief Executive. It has power to amend the makeup of its successors after 2009.

The legal system is based largely on Portuguese law. The territory has its own independent judicial system, headed by the Court of Final Appeal (CFA), which makes final judgments on court cases. Judges are selected by a committee and appointed by the chief executive.

Macau is 70 km southwest of Hong Kong and 145 km from Guangzhou. It consists of a peninsula, and the islands of Taipa and Coloane.

The peninsula is formed by the Zhujiang (Pearl River) estuary on the east and the Xijiang (West River) on the west. It borders the Zhuhai Special Economic Zone in mainland China.

Macau has a generally flat terrain resulting from extensive land reclamation, but numerous steep hills mark the original natural land mass. The Macau peninsula was originally an island, but gradually a connecting sandbar turned into a narrow isthmus. Land reclamation in the 17th century made Macau into a peninsula.

With a dense urban environment, Macau has no arable land, pastures, forest, or woodland. Because of this deficiency, Macau's people traditionally have looked to the sea for their livelihood.

Macau's economy is based largely on tourism, including gambling. Efforts to diversify have spawned other small industries, such as Textile, toy, artificial flowers, and electronics manufacturing. The clothing industry has provided about three-fourths of export earnings, and the gambling industry is estimated to contribute more than 40% of Macau's GDP, and 70% of Macau government revenue.

From 9.1 million in 2000, arrivals to Macau has grown to 18.7 million in 2005 [1], with over 50% of the arrivals coming from mainland China. This recent growth has been driven by gambling and related tourism. Tourists from Hong Kong remain numerous, representing about 30% of arrivals. Recently Triad underworld violence, a dark spot on the economy, has significantly declined, to the benefit of the tourism sector. The average growth rate between 2001 and 2005 has been approximately 10% annually. The GDP per capita in 2004 was USD22,620. In the first quarter of 2005, the unemployment rate was 4.1%.

With the opening of the Sands Casino [2] in 2004 gambling revenues from Macau's casinos were for the first time greater than those of Las Vegas (each about $5 billion), making Macau currently the highest-volume gambling centre in the world. Other casinos slated to be opened through 2008 are the Wynn Macau Casino [3] in 2006, the Venetian Macau [4] in 2007, the Galaxy, Crown Macau and others. As a result, the small economy is growing rapidly due to gambling related tourism from China and construction from the new casino entrants.

's population is 95% Chinese, primarily Cantonese and some Hakka, both from nearby Guangdong Province. The remainder are of Portuguese or mixed Chinese-Portuguese ancestry, or the so-called Macanese. Some Japanese, including descendants of Japanese Catholics who were expelled by shoguns, also live in Macau. The official languages are Portuguese and Chinese. Though the residents commonly speak Cantonese, both Cantonese and Mandarin are

Some 24 historic monuments and eight public squares, together forming the "Historic Centre of Macao", has been inscribed onto the World Cultural Heritage List of UNESCO, on 15 July 2005.

Like Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, but unlike both mainland China and Portugal, traffic in Macau travels on the left, and the majority of vehicles are right hand drive. (Portugal and southern provinces of China also originally drove on the left.)Like Hong Kong, Macau also has a flower to represent the city. While the representative flower of Hong Kong is the , the representative flower of Macau is the lotus. The lotus is always used as a symbol of the Macau Special Administrative Region.MacauHub - a designated economic information portal to promote business ties between China and the Portuguese speaking world.