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City of
History
Fishermen from Fujian and farmers from Guangdong were the first known settlers
in Macau, when it was known as Ou Mun, or "trading gate". During ancient times
this port city was part of the
Maritime Silk Road with ships loading here with silk for
Rome.
In the early 1550s the Portuguese reached Ou Mun, which the locals also called A
Ma Gao, "place of A Ma", in honor of the Goddess of Seafarers, whose temple
stood at the entrance to the sheltered Inner Harbour. The Portuguese adopted the
name, which gradually changed into the name Macau, and with the permission of
Guangdong's mandarins, established a city that within a short time had become a
major center for trade between China, Japan, India and Europe . . . the perfect
crossroad for the meeting of East and West cultures.
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City of
Today
Today Macau is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's
Republic of China, and, like Hong Kong, benefits from the principle of
"one country, two systems". The tiny SAR is growing in size - with more
building on reclaimed land - and in the number and diversity of its
attractions. The greatest of these continues to be Macau's unique society,
with communities from the East and West complementing each other and the
many people who come to visit.
As in the past, Macau's economy is closely linked to that of Hong Kong and
Guangdong Province, in particular the Pearl River Delta region, which
qualifies as one of Asia's "little tigers". |
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