Macau, also
spelled Macao, is one of the two Special Administrative Regions of the People's
Republic of China, the other being Hong Kong. Macau lies on the western side of
the Pearl River Delta across from Hong Kong, which is about 64 kilometers to
the east, and it is also bordered by Guangdong Province to the north and the
South China Sea to the east and south.
A former Portuguese colony, Macau
was administered by Portugal from the mid-16th century until late 1999, when it
was the last remaining European colony in Asia. Portuguese traders first
settled in Macau in the 1550s. In 1557, Macau was rented to Portugal by the
Ming Dynasty as a trading port. The Portuguese administered the city under
Chinese authority and sovereignty until 1887, when Macau became a colony of the
Portuguese empire. Sovereignty over Macau was transferred back to China on 20
December 1999. The Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration and the Basic Law of Macau
stipulate that Macau operate with a high degree of autonomy until at least
2049, fifty years after the transfer.
