| Macau index | Macau, China |
Visual Index of Macau Sites:
| Site name and description | |
 | Macau Streets Scenes from Macau's modern and colonial streetscape |
 | St. Pauls Cathedral (1602) The ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral, the oldest building in the city |
The Portuguese founded Macau as a strategic port on the western bank of the Pearl River delta in 1557. The first European settlement on coastal China, Macau soon became wealthy through the lucrative Japan-China trade that was banned to the nationals of both countries. Although Japan closed its doors to such trade in the early 17c, Macau continued as the major international port for Chinese goods and served the widening European interest in the Chinese market in the 17th to early 19c. From its beginnings Macau also was the Asian seat of Roman Catholicism and a training center for European Christian missionary-scholars who went to the court of China.
The expulsion of the religious orders in the eighteenth century and the founding of Hong Kong in 1841 removed the two major formal European constituents, and Macau became a Mediterranean oasis in south China and an R&R destination for the wealthier Hong Kong. Neutral because of its Portuguese status, Macau became during the Second World War a place of refuge for many from Japanese expansionism.
In 1974 Macau officially became a Chinese territory "under Portuguese administration." It was returned to China on December 20, 1999, as the "Special Administrative Region of Macau" with a guarantee that it could maintain its existing economic, social and political systems for fifty years.
Although a new international airport was opened on the eastern part of Taipa Island in December 1995, most visitors—who come for its gambling, racing and a more wide-open entertainment industry—still arrive from Hong Kong via jetfoils, turbo cats, highspeed ferries and even hourly helicopter flights.
Macau currently has a population of slightly less than a half million with 70% being formally Chinese nationals and about 30% Portuguese passport holders (though over 90% are ethnic Chinese). The population has almost doubled in the past fifteen years, with most arriving from mainland China to enjoy better living conditions. There has been a considerable recent building program, even involving filling in portions of the harbors for new construction sites, since some of the existing land is hilly. The recent developments have diluted considerably the Portuguese heritage of the area though much remains in its churches and some traditional Portuguese- style buildings.
Bibliography:
All images copyright 2000 Professor Robert D. Fiala of Concordia University, Nebraska, USA
Text by Robert D. Fiala.