Macau Names History Politics Subdivisions Geography

Broadly, Macanese refers to all permanent inhabitants of Macau. But narrowly, it refers to an ethnic group in Macau originating from Portuguese descent, usually mixed with Chinese blood.

Besides historical colonial relics, the biggest attractions in Macau are the casinos. Though many forms of gambling are legal there, the most popular game is Pai GowPai Gow is a Chinese gambling game. It is played with the Chinese dominoes tile set. The game is played in underground casinos in most Chinese communities. It is played openly in major casinos in Macau, China, Las Vegas, Nevada, Atlantic City, New Jersey,, a game played with Chinese dominoesChinese dominoes are used in several tile-based games, namely, Tien Gow, Pai Gow, Gwat Pai, Che Deng, Tiu U, Kap Tai Shap. References to Chinese domino tiles can be traced to writings from the Song Dynasty (960-1279) (AD 1120). Each tile pattern in the Ch. Gamblers from Hong Kong often take a one-day excursion to the city. FerryA ferry is a boat or a ship carrying passengers, and possibly their vehicles, on a relatively short-distance, regularly-scheduled service. Ferries form an important part of the public transport systems of many waterside cities, allowing direct transit bet service by hydrofoilPeterhof preparing to travel swiftly through the Gulf of Finland to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg A hydrofoil is a boat with wing-like foils mounted on struts below the hull. As the craft increases its speed the hydrofoils develop enough lift for th between Hong Kong and Macau is available 24 hours a day, every day.

1 Names

The name "Macau" (馬交 Cantonese: Magau) is thought to be derived from "Mage Temple" (媽閣廟 Cantonese: Magok), a still existing landmark built in 1448 dedicated to the goddess Matsu. The more popular Chinese name of Àomén (澳門) means "Inlet Gates". The "gates" refer to two erect gate-like mountains of Nantai (南台) and Beitai (北台). Macau is also known as Haojing'ao (壕鏡澳 "Trench-mirror Inlet"), Xiangshan'ao (香山澳 "Fragrant-mountain Inlet"), Liandao (蓮島 "Lotus Island"), as well as "Soda port" (疏打埠).

Macau is the official Portuguese spelling. Sometimes in English, Macao is used.

2 History

Main article: History of Macau

Macau was officially founded as a colony of Portugal in 1557 and recognized by the Chinese in 1670. Macau prospered as a port and was a 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 Cidade do Nome de Deus, de Macau, Não há outra mais Leal (City of the Name of God, Macau, There is None More Loyal).

With Hong Kong established as a British Crown Colony, Macau declined as regional trading center as larger ships were drawn to the deep water port of Victoria Harbour.

After the leftist military coup of 1974, the now democratic Portuguese government was determined to free up all its overseas possessions. In 1976, Lisbon redefined Macau as a Special Territory and granted it a large measure of administrative and economic independence. Following the example of the British, an agreement was made with the People's Republic of China to make Macau a Special Administrative Region in 1999.

3 Politics

Main article: Politics of Macau

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 23-member body comprising eight directly elected members, eight appointed members representing functional constituencies and seven members appointed by the chief executive. The Legislative Assembly is responsible for general lawmaking. The city of Macau and the islands of Taipa and Coloane each have a municipal council .

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

4 Subdivisions

Macau comprises two administrative subdivisions:

The Northern District (北區): Macao proper
The Islands District (離島區): Taipa and Coloane

Although the phrase "Northern District", broadly speaking, may refer to the entire Macau peninsula, some of the people in Macau use the phrase "Northern District" more narrowly. It refers to the northern part of the Macau peninsula, and the northern part of the Macau peninsula is situated near the border of China. In this way, a lot of people travel to and from China by land (i.e. on foot or all sorts of land transportation) through the northern district.

5 Geography

Main article: Geography of Macau

Macau 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.

6 Economy

Main article: Economy of Macau

Macau's economy is based largely on tourism, including gambling, and textile and fireworks manufacturing. Efforts to diversify have spawned other small industries, such as toys, artificial flower s, and electronics. The clothing industry has provided about three-fourths of export earnings, and the gambling industry is estimated to contribute more than 40% of GDP. More than 8 million tourists visited Macau in 2000. Although the recent growth in gambling and tourism has been driven primarily by mainland Chinese, tourists from Hong Kong remain the most numerous. Recently, gang violence, a dark spot on the economy, has declined somewhat, to the benefit of the tourism sector.

7 Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Macau

Considered as a " dependency", Macau is the most densely populated of the countries/dependencies in the world.

Macau'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. The official languages are Portuguese (especially its creole Macaista, which is almost extinct) and Mandarin Chinese, though the residents commonly speak Cantonese Chinese. English is spoken in tourist areas.

8 Culture

Main article: Culture of Macau

9 Landmarks

10 Miscellaneous topics

11 External link

Government of Macau

Province-level divisions administered by the People's Republic of China

Provinces¹:	Anhui \| Fujian \| Gansu \| Guangdong \| Guizhou \| Hainan \| Hebei \| Heilongjiang \| Henan \| Hubei \| Hunan \| Jiangsu \| Jiangxi \| Jilin \| Liaoning \| Qinghai \| Shaanxi \| Shandong \| Shanxi \| Sichuan \| Yunnan \| Zhejiang
Autonomous Regions:	Guangxi \| Inner Mongolia \| Ningxia \| Tibet \| Xinjiang
Municipalities:	Beijing \| Chongqing \| Shanghai \| Tianjin
Special Administrative Regions:	Hong Kong \| Macau
	¹ See also: Political status of Taiwan

Countries in East Asia

PRC (China) | Japan | North Korea | South Korea | ROC (Taiwan)

[ }\|action=edit}} Edit }]	Portuguese former colonies
Angola \| Brazil \| Cape Verde \| East Timor \| Portuguese Guinea \| Portuguese India \| Macao \| Mozambique \| São Tomé and Príncipe

Not to be confused with the parrot macaw.

Macau is also the name of a commune in the Gironde département, in France

Macau Special territories

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