{
"Introduction": {
"Background": {
"text": "Portuguese ships began arriving in 1513. In the 1550s, Portuguese paying tribute to China settled in Macau, which became the official entrepôt for all international trade with China and Japan and the first European settlement in the Far East. The first governor was appointed in the 17th century, but the Portuguese remained largely under the control of the Chinese. In the 1930s and ’40s Macau was declared a neutral territory during the Sino-Japanese War and World War II and became a refuge for both Chinese and Europeans. Portugal officially made Macau an overseas province in 1951.
In April 1987, Portugal and China reached an agreement to return Macau to Chinese rule in 1999, using the Hong Kong Joint Declaration between China and the UK as a model. In this agreement, China promised that, under its \"one country, two systems\" formula, China's political and economic system would not be imposed on Macau, and that Macau would enjoy a \"high degree of autonomy\" in all matters except foreign affairs and defense for the next 50 years. However, after China's multi-year crackdown against the pro-democracy movement in nearby Hong Kong, the governments of China and the Macau Special Administrative Region worked to limit Macau's political autonomy by suppressing opposition activity in the 2021 legislative elections."
}
},
"Geography": {
"Location": {
"text": "Eastern Asia, bordering the South China Sea and China"
},
"Geographic coordinates": {
"text": "22 10 N, 113 33 E"
},
"Map references": {
"text": "Southeast Asia"
},
"Area": {
"total ": {
"text": "28 sq km"
},
"land": {
"text": "28.2 sq km"
},
"water": {
"text": "0 sq km"
}
},
"Area - comparative": {
"text": "less than one-sixth the size of Washington, D.C."
},
"Land boundaries": {
"total": {
"text": "3 km"
},
"regional borders": {
"text": "China 3 km"
}
},
"Coastline": {
"text": "41 km"
},
"Maritime claims": {
"text": "not specified"
},
"Climate": {
"text": "subtropical; marine with cool winters, warm summers"
},
"Terrain": {
"text": "generally flat"
},
"Elevation": {
"highest point": {
"text": "Alto Coloane 172 m"
},
"lowest point": {
"text": "South China Sea 0 m"
}
},
"Natural resources": {
"text": "NEGL"
},
"Land use": {
"agricultural land": {
"text": "0% (2022 est.)"
},
"forest": {
"text": "0% (2022 est.)"
},
"other": {
"text": "100% (2022 est.)"
}
},
"Irrigated land": {
"text": "0 sq km (2012)"
},
"Population distribution": {
"text": "population fairly equally distributed"
},
"Natural hazards": {
"text": "typhoons"
},
"Geography - note": {
"text": "primarily urban; an area of land reclaimed from the sea measuring 5.2 sq km (2 sq mi) and known as Cotai now connects the islands of Coloane and Taipa; the island area is connected to the mainland peninsula by three bridges"
}
},
"People and Society": {
"Population": {
"total": {
"text": "644,426 (2024 est.)"
},
"male": {
"text": "304,988"
},
"female": {
"text": "339,438"
}
},
"Nationality": {
"noun": {
"text": "Chinese"
},
"adjective": {
"text": "Chinese"
}
},
"Ethnic groups": {
"text": "Chinese 89.4%, Chinese and Portuguese 1%, Portuguese 0.8%, Chinese and non-Portuguese 0.2%, Portuguese and others 0.2%, other 8.5% (2021 est.)"
},
"Languages": {
"Languages": {
"text": "Cantonese 81%, Mandarin 4.7%, other Chinese dialects 5.4%, English 3.6%, Tagalog 2.9%, Portuguese 0.6%, other 1.8% (2021 est.)"
},
"major-language sample(s)": {
"text": "
世界概况, 必須擁有的基本資料参考书 (Cantonese)