Macau - Special Administrative Region (SAR)

Macau[e] or Macao[f] is a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China. With a population of about 710,000 people[11] and a land area of 32.9 km2 (12.7 sq mi), it is the most densely populated region in the world.

Formerly a Portuguese colony, the territory of Portuguese Macau was first leased to Portugal by the Ming dynasty as a trading post in 1557. Portugal paid an annual rent and administered the territory under Chinese sovereignty until 1887. Portugal later gained perpetual colonial rights in the Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Peking. The colony remained under Portuguese rule until the 1999 handover to China. Macau is a special administrative region of China, which maintains separate governing and economic systems from those of mainland China under the principle of "one country, two systems".[12] The unique blend of Portuguese and Chinese architecture in the city's historic centre has resulted in its inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2005.[13]

Originally a sparsely populated collection of coastal islands,[14] Macau, often referred to as the "Las Vegas of the East", since the late 20th century has become a major resort city and a top destination for gambling tourism. Its gambling industry is seven times larger than that of Las Vegas.[15] The city has one of the highest GDPs per capita and GDPs per capita by purchasing power parity in the world.[16][17]

It has a very high Human Development Index of 0.925, as calculated by the Government of Macau,[10] and the fourth-highest life expectancy in the world.[18] The territory is highly urbanised, holding the status of the most densely populated territory on Earth; two-thirds of the total land area is built on land reclaimed from the sea.[19]