The first known written record of the name 'Macau', rendered as 'A Ma Gang' ( 亞/阿-媽/馬-港), is found in a letter dated 20 November 1555. Ou 3mun 4*2 Deg 6bid 6 Heng 4jing 3 Kêu 1 Īo-men T'e-pieh Hsing-cheng-ch'ü (Ao-men T'e Ch'ü) The territory is highly urbanised two-thirds of the total land area is built on land reclaimed from the sea. It has a very high Human Development Index, as calculated by the Macau government, and the fourth-highest life expectancy in the world. The city has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, US$43,770 in 2021, and its GDP per capita by purchasing power parity is one of the highest in the world. Originally a sparsely populated collection of coastal islands, Macau, often referred to as the 'Las Vegas of the East', has become a major resort city and a top destination for gambling tourism, with a gambling industry seven times larger than that of Las Vegas.

The unique blend of Portuguese and Chinese architecture in the city's historic centre led to its inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2005. Macau is a special administrative region of China, which maintains separate governing and economic systems from those of mainland China under the principle of ' one country, two systems'. The colony remained under Portuguese rule until 1999, when it was transferred to China. Portugal later gained perpetual colonial rights in the Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Peking. Portugal paid an annual rent and administered the territory under Chinese sovereignty until 1887. With a population of about 680,000 and an area of 32.9 km 2 (12.7 sq mi), it is the most densely populated region in the world.įormerly a Portuguese colony, the territory of Portuguese Macau was first leased to Portugal as a trading post by the Ming dynasty in 1557. Macau or Macao ( English: / m ə ˈ k aʊ/ ⓘ Portuguese: Chinese: 澳門, Cantonese: ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. None for local vehicles, 粤Z for cross-boundary vehicles

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