that Macau would be mostly autonomous in all matters except foreign and defense affairs for the following 50 years.
The local government is a limited democracy. Fernando Chui Sai On is the current Chief Executive.
Located 40 miles west of Hong Kong and just south of the Guangdong province, the official languages are Cantonese and Portugese, but main language is Cantonese. Other languages spoken are: other Chinese dialects, Mandarin, and English.
The Chinese name for Macau is 澳门, said 'aomen'.
Macau, along with Hong Kong, use traditional Chinese characters instead of simplified like mainland China. To demonstrate the difference, this is how to say China in both:
- Traditional: 中國
- Simplified: 中国
Macau is less than 1/6 the size of Washington DC with an area of 29.5 square kilometers (about 11 square miles). Its mostly flat terrain is home to a crowded environment, with 100% of the population in an urban setting. The population is 558,100: just imagine that many people in 11 square miles!According to the Macau website, Macau is the most densely populated city in the world, with 18,875 people per square km, almost 3 times as many as Hong Kong!!!
Most people work either in casinos or in the tourism industry. Macau is bigger than Las Vegas in the gambling scene, and many come to Macau just for that reason.
In 2006, statistics show that a new visitor entered Macau every 1.4 seconds!
Traffic moves on the left side of the road in Macau, like in Hong Kong.
Its climate is subtropical, with cool winters and warm summers:
- Hottest month: July [27ºC(80ºF) - 32ºC(89.6ºF)]
- Coolest month: January [13ºC(55.4ºF - 18ºC(64ºF)]
- When you're jealous of me for the temperature, just remember: there's no heat in buildings!!
