Macau

Macao (Chinese澳门/澳门, Pinyin Aomen; Portuguese Macau ) is a location about 50 kilometers west of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People 's Republic of China. Until 1999 it was a Portuguese colony. Macau is rich in tourist attractions from the colonial era. Main sources of income are tourism from mainland China in connection with gambling. Macao is called the Monte Carlo of the East or the Las Vegas of the East. Since gambling - unlike in neighboring Hong Kong - Macau is legal, many visitors come from there.

The inhabitants of Macao (German Macanesen or Macao ) speak mainly Cantonese ( 85.7 %), Hokkien ( 4%), Mandarin Chinese (3.2% ) and other Chinese dialects ( 2.7%). 4.4% speak other languages, including English and predominantly Tagalog. The macaoische language which is known by the term " Patuá " or Macaista is a special creole that today only about 4000 of Macao ( an ethnic group of mixed Asian and Portuguese descent, about 2% of the population) is spoken.

The full name of Macau is the standard Chinese Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó Aomen Tèbié Xíngzhèngqū (Chinese中华人民共和国 澳门 特别 行政区/中华人民共和国 澳门 特别 行政区listen (high Chinese)? / I listen to ( Cantonese )? / I) and in the Portuguese language Região Administrativa Especial de Macau da República Popular da China ( Listen ( Portuguese) ( file? ) ).

Macau is the region with the second highest life expectancy in the world. It is 84.5 years.

• 6.1 racetrack
• 6.2 Education
• 6.3 Attractions
• 6.4 Religion

Geography

Macao lies in the delta of the Pearl River. The territory of the special administrative region originally consisted of three islands. Through the islands of Taipa and Coloane land fills are each connected to the mainland and Macao.

History

The Chinese records of Macau date back to the year 1152 as a county Xiangshan, where Macau is listed as uninhabited. 1277 fled members of the Southern Song Dynasty with about 50,000 followers from the Mongols to Macao. This is the first record of residents. The refugees could settle in Macao and defend the islands.

When the Portuguese arrived in Macao in 1516, it was not much more than a fishing village on the Pearl River delta. 1557 allowed the Chinese to Portuguese, the establishment of a settlement, however, the sovereignty remained in China, only a local Portuguese administration was established. The Portuguese took advantage of Macao as a trading post and stopover on the way from Lisbon to Nagasaki.

As China in 1547 prohibited direct trade with Japan, trade across Macao ran on. The Portuguese built from the location to the port city, and finally to the center of its presence in Asia. In June 1622 an attempt to conquer the Dutchman was blocked.

From Macao, there was a governor who was also responsible for the entire East Asian territories temporarily stopped but the Viceroy / Governor-General of India in Goa was under. The first Portuguese governor was used in 1680, but is still under Chinese sovereignty. The Portuguese paid rent and taxes to China.

In 1835, the St. Paul's Church, the landmark of the city was destroyed by a fire during a typhoon. Since then, only the facade still stands and can be visited today.

When the port business migrated more and more to the big neighbor Hong Kong, gambling was legalized in 1847 in Macao. As in Hong Kong only horse betting are allowed and the Chinese are very fond of gambling as generally represent the casino revenues since a large part of the gross domestic product.

1849 tried the first Portuguese to win the complete authority over Macao and Macao declared independence from China. The Chinese did not tolerate this. There were minor skirmishes; the culmination of the riots was the death of the Governor Ferreira do Amaral.

On March 26, 1887, the Manchu government acknowledged the Portuguese right of permanent occupation.

During the Second World War, Macao was a neutral port, to the Japanese in 1943 established a protectorate over Macao. The Japanese rule lasted until 1945.

After the 1949 Revolution, the Chinese government demanded the return of Macao initially, but could not prevail. The solution was postponed indefinitely. In 1966, there were pro-communist riots in Macau. The Portuguese then tried to return Macau to China, this was rejected by the Chinese government, as well as another diplomatic foray Portugal after the Portuguese revolution in 1974., The Chinese government wanted to first solve the Hong Kong issue.

After the establishment of official diplomatic relations between Portugal and China in the year 1979 1985 the return of negotiations started, a year after the British government had agreed to the return of Hong Kong for the year 1997. The negotiations led in 1987 to success.

On 20 December 1999 Portugal gave the sovereignty back to China. The official name of Macao since the handover of power: Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. Chinese was next to the Portuguese full-fledged official language of Macau. As in Hong Kong, Macau, the principle "one country, two systems". The socialist economic system in China is not applied in Macao. Macau enjoys autonomy except defense and foreign affairs: they are determined by Beijing.

Economy

Economically important for Macau is the manufacture of fireworks and textiles.

Gambling

2011, there were 34 casinos with 33.9 billion U.S. dollars in sales. The turnover is therefore compared to 2010 increased by 42 percent. Due to the Macau gambling has its number of tourists from 8 million in 2000 to 29,324,822 million in 2013 more than tripled. In January 2014 came 2,503,609 tourists. This is reflected especially in the construction industry down, because in view of the small area of Macao mainly high-rise buildings to be built.

Since the fall of the gambling monopoly end of 2002 have primarily U.S. consortia of Las Vegas, Nevada applied for the license to build casinos. The investors want the Las Vegas reconstruct the artificial Aufschüttungsflächen between the two southern islands of Taipa and Coloane Strip.

In May 2004, opened with a golden facade provided Sands Macau, a casino (since 2007 with the hotel), whose construction cost is amortized in less than a year.

Near the southern flank of Taipa a large casino, hotel and leisure complex has been created, currently the largest in the world. The centerpiece is the easily accessible from all sides casino hall with the exceptionally large area of 51,000 square meters.

Since January 2008, Texas Hold'em Poker is officially allowed as gambling in Macau.

In May 2011, the Galaxy Resort was opened in Macao, another player palace with 2200 hotel rooms, 50 restaurants, an artificial beach and a wave pool.

Since 1989 in Macau a racecourse, with a capacity of 15,000 seats where the betting is legal on the outcome of the race.

The Venetian Macao

Between 2004 to 2007, Resort -Hotel- Casino The Venetian Macao, which is the sixth-largest building in the world by floor space to the state in March 2013 was formed. The Venetian is dominated by the 225 meter high angled Hotel bar with 39 storeys and 3000 suites. You are subsidized like in Las Vegas in order to attract the necessary mass of players in the casino. In addition to the hotel, and a 111,000 -square-foot guarantee capacity conference center, a fully equipped theater and an events arena with 15,000 seats were built to. The distributed throughout the complex of restaurants and shops occupy an area of ​​149,000 square meters. In the first five months after opening on 29 August 2007 10 million people were counted. Personnel expenses in the complex is calculated with approximately 25,000 employees, that's one in five jobs of Macau.

Is framed the Venetian, as well as the smaller two-thirds model in Las Vegas, from the replica Venetian canals with gondolas on street fronts under artificial sky in a permanent twilight. The decor is in a Venetian style, but inserted in the equipment are everywhere in the casino near the Chinese lucky charms dragon and fish. Outside the solitary here Campanile from St. Mark's Square, which was rebuilt at full size including tower figure stands (98.6 meters). A large pond lights in the dark in the plant.

Administrative divisions

Politically, the area is divided into two cities:

• Concelho de Macau (澳门 市, 421 662 inhabitants)
• Concelho das Ilhas (海岛 市, 61 128 inhabitants)

The concelho de Macau itself is divided into five municipal districts:

• Freguesia de Nossa Senhora de Fátima (花 地 玛 堂 区)
• Freguesia de Santo António (圣安多尼 堂 区)
• Freguesia de São Lazaro (望 德 堂 区)
• Freguesia de São Lourenço (风 顺 堂 区, or圣 老 愣 佐 堂 区)
• Freguesia da Sé (大堂 区)

The concelho das Ilhas is divided into two municipal districts:

• Freguesia da Nossa Senhora do Carmo (嘉 模 堂 区) on the island of Taipa
• Freguesia do São Francisco Xavier (圣 方 济 各 堂 区) on the island of Coloane

Located between the islands of Taipa and Coloane Cotai area territory is not assigned district.

The independent administrations of cities and municipal districts were disbanded on 31 December 2001. In its place, the Instituto para os Assuntos Civicos e Municipais occurred (management of civic and urban affairs ).

Infrastructure

The Macau peninsula and Taipa island are connected to three bridges. The newest bridge ( Sai Van bridge, in the West) is opened to traffic since early 2005. Only through this new and higher bridge Taipa Island is accessible when typhoon warning by car. The two older bridges ( Governor Nobre de Carvalho Bridge and Ponte da Amizade, since 1994, in the East) are not adequately protected from wind and waves.

Between the ports of Macao and Taipa There are regular fast ferries. Every day the route Macau Hong Kong is around 150 times traveled by hydrofoil. There are connections to Hong Kong International Airport, the China Ferry Pier in Kowloon and the Macau Ferry Terminal on Hong Kong Iceland. The crossing takes about an hour. Also ferry connections to Shekou ( Shenzhen) and the Shenzhen airport and bus routes to Gongbei ( Zhuhai) and Guangzhou. Furthermore run between the port of Macau to Hong Kong regularly helicopter and Shenzhen.

Since 1995, Macau has its own international airport, the Macau International Airport. The inner city traffic and even the transport to the surrounding islands are relieved by an effective bus system, all vehicles are equipped with air conditioning.

Currently running plans for a rail- based mass transit system, the Macau Light Rail Transit, which will consist of three lines ( Circle line north-south line for connection to the islands and a line to the airport) is 27 km total length would have. The commissioned in 2005 new third bridge between Macau and Taipa is already designed for the rail link. Construction was originally supposed to be in 2006, but this has now delayed to 2012.

Contrary to the People's Republic of China reigns in the field of Macau on the left.

Culture

Track

Since 1954, every year in November at the street circuit of Macau Guia Circuit Grand Prix, which is composed of different races for motorcycles, touring cars and single-seaters.

Education

Macau has four universities and numerous other educational institutions:

• Polytechnic Institute of Macau ( Instituto Politécnico de Macau )
• University of Macau ( Universidade de Macau )
• Macau University of Science and Technology
• Saint Joseph's University ( Universidade de São José )
• Institute for Tourism Studies
• Kiang Wu Nursing College
• Macau Millennium College
• Macau Security Forces Training College
• Macau Institute of Management
• United Nations University International Institute for Software Technology United Nations University
• Institute of European Studies of Macau

Attractions

• Facade ruins of St. Paul ( Ruinas de São Paulo)
• Macau Tower ( 338 meters)
• Casino Lisboa and Grand Lisboa
• Grand Prix Museum
• Penha Church

UNESCO added the historic center of Macau in 2005 to the World Heritage Site.

Religion

In 1997 lived in Macau estimated about 50 % Buddhist and 15 % Roman Catholics. 35 % belong to another or no religion. Buddhism is also represented by non-Chinese organizations such as Tibetan Buddhism to the Nyingmapa.

Air table

Sons and daughters of the town

• Manuel John Johnson (1805-1859), British astronomer
• Vicente Nicolau de Mesquita (1818-1880), military, hero of the Battle of Baishaling ( Portuguese: Batalha do Passaleão )
• Pedro Nolasco da Silva (1842-1912), translator, author, educator and journalist
• Victor Hugo de Azevedo Coutinho (1871-1955), naval officer, high school teacher at the University of Coimbra and politician, Prime Minister 1914-15
• João de Sousa Barbosa Tamagnini (1883-1948), military and politician, Prime Minister 1918-1919
• Flávio José Álvares dos Santos (1895-1977), military and contractor
• Luís Gonzaga Gomes (1907-1976), philologist, translator, sinologist, music historian and author
• Geoffrey de Ste Croix (1910-2000), British historian
• Rui Atouguia Jervis (1917-2006), Portuguese architect
• José dos Santos Ferreira (1919-1993), writer, defender of the Macanese Creole Patuá
• Henrique de Senna Fernandes (1923-2010), writer and lawyer
• Leonel Zilhão Ayres da Silva Barros (1924-2011), Vet, painter, author and musician
• Augusto Francisco Rocha ( born 1935 ), football player of the national team and at Académica de Coimbra
• José Lai Hung -seng ( b. 1946 ), Bishop
• Edmund Ho Hau -wah ( born 1955 ), businessman and politician
• Carlos Marreiros ( b. 1957 ), architect, urban planner and artist
• Fernando Chui Sai -on (* 1957), politician
• José Maria Pereira Coutinho ( b. 1957 ), politician from a family from Goa
• Eva Vital ( * 1992), Portuguese athlete

Pedro Nolasco da Silva

João de Sousa Barbosa Tamagnini

Luís Gonzaga Gomes, Statue in Macau

José Lai Hung -seng

Fernando Chui Sai On

José Maria Pereira Coutinho