Macau is the oldest permanent European settlement in the Far East. First visited by Portuguese navigators in the early 16th century, it was established as a trading colony in 1557. It soon flourished as the principal trading port between China and the West, and in the 18th century was one of the world’s richest cities. In 1849 the Portuguese proclaimed sovereignty of the settlement; this act was formally recognized by China in a treaty in 1887. By the end of the 19th century, with the silting of its harbour and the growth of the port of Hong Kong, Macau lost its pre-eminence in Chinese trade.

As its trade declined, Macau gained a reputation as a smuggling and gambling centre. Its population was swelled by refugees from Communist China after 1949. In 1967 the city experienced severe pro-Communist riots. In 1976 Macau was given increased administrative and economic independence, and direct elections for a third of the seats in the Legislative Assembly were instituted. In 1987, Portuguese and Chinese negotiators reached agreement on the return of Macau to China in 1999: as a “special administrative region”, Macao was to retain internal autonomy and its elected assembly. In January 1989 Portugal announced that some Portuguese passports would be issued to residents of Macau, as many as 200,000 (or half the population) by 1999; unlike neighbouring Hong Kong, Macau’s citizens would therefore have the option of leaving after the reversion to Chinese sovereignty, with full residence rights in the European Union. Around 100,000 Macau residents demonstrated against the bloody suppression of the Tiananmen Square protest in June 1989.

China issued the Macau Basic Law (Macau’s post-1999 constitution) in 1991, following the model of the Hong Kong Basic Law, including comparatively favourable terms on office tenure by foreign passport-holders and constitutional structure. Roughly half of the Legislative Assembly seats contested in September 1992 went to broadly pro-Beijing candidates. In May 1999 the chief executive of Macau was chosen. Violence surged in Macau as the date of handover neared and triads (gangs) struggled for control over lucrative gambling profits. China based approximately 1,000 troops in Macao S. A. R. after the handover to deter violence. In the first elections after the hand back, in September 2001, a pro-democracy party won 20 per cent of the vote, gaining two out of the ten contested seats despite a reduced turnout. Pro-Beijing candidates accounted for four of the remaining seats, while the other four went to pro-business candidates.

28.03.09

Departed Macau for Shenzhen by ferry, and on to Chongqing by plane, price wise cheaper than air travel all the way.