Macau, also spelled Macao
(澳門, Cantonese: ; official Portuguese: Macau),
and officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic
of China, is a city in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. It is a special
administrative region of China
and maintains separate governing and economic systems from those of mainland China. With a population of 667,400 and an area of
32.9 km2 (12.7 sq mi), it is the most densely populated region in the world. Macau is on China's
southern coast, 60 km (37 mi) west of Hong Kong, on the western side of the Pearl River estuary. It is
surrounded by the South China Sea in the
east and south, and neighbours the Guangdong city of Zhuhai to the west and north. The territory consists of Macau Peninsula, Taipa, and Coloane. A 1 km2 (0.39 sq mi) parcel
of land in neighbouring Hengqin island that hosts the University of Macau also
falls under the regional government's jurisdiction. The territory's highest
point is Coloane Alto, 170.6 metres (560 ft)
above sea level.
Macau was formerly a colony of the Portuguese Empire, after Ming China leased the territory as a trading post in 1557.
Portugal paid an annual rent and administered the territory under Chinese sovereignty
until 1887, when it gained perpetual colonial rights in the Sino-Portuguese Treaty of
Peking. The colony remained under Portuguese rule until 1999, when
it was transferred to China.
The first known written
record of the name "Macau", rendered as "Ya/A Ma Gang" ("亞/阿-媽/馬-港"),
is found in a letter dated 20 November 1555. The local inhabitants believed
that the sea-goddess Mazu (alternatively called A-Ma) had blessed and protected the
harbour and called the waters around A-Ma Temple using her name. When Portuguese explorers first
arrived in the area and asked for the place name, the locals thought they were
asking about the temple and told them it was "Ma Kok" (媽閣). The
earliest Portuguese spelling for this was Amaquão. Multiple variations were
used until Amacão / Amacao and Macão / Macao became common during the 17th
century, gradually standardising as Macau / Macao today. Macau Peninsula had many names in Chinese, including Jing'ao (井澳/鏡澳), Haojing
(濠鏡), and Haojing'ao
(濠鏡澳). The
islands Taipa, Coloane, and Hengqin were collectively called Shizimen (十字門).
These names would later become Aomen (澳門), Oumún
in Cantonese and translating as "bay gate" or "port gate",
to refer to the whole territory.
The first stamps issued for Macau, appearing in 1884, used the common
"Portuguese crown" design for nine values ranging from 5 to 300 reis. in 1894 the currency was changed to avos and rupees, 78 avos to the rupee (this would change
to 100 avos to the pataca in 1913). In
response leftover Luis stamps were surcharged in various avos values, in both
Latin and Chinese characters, along with the word "PROVISORIO". Postage due stamps pressed into regular service by
overprinting obliterating bars on the "PORTEADO" and
"RECEBER" text of those stamps.
In the wake of the revolution of 1910, the
government overprinted stocks of the Carlos stamps with "REPUBLICA"
and shipped those out to Macau. The turbulent situation required some
creativity on the part of local officials, and in 1911, they produced 2a and 5a
values by overprinting the new value diagonally in upper right and lower left
corners of 4a and 10a stamps, then bisecting them on the diagonal. In 1913, they also applied a
Republica overprint to a variety of older stamps going back to 1898. The main
effect of the 1999 transition
to special administrative region status was a change in the
inscription on the stamps: from "MACAU" along with "REPÚBLICA
PORTUGUESA" in smaller print somewhere on the stamp, to "MACAU,
CHINA".
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