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Originally known as "Ou Mun" or "trading gate", Macao in ancient times was a stop on the Silk Road and an important port city for ships taking silk to Rome. Despite China then declining as aworld trade centre, Macao continued to prosper with seaborne business for Southern China and welcomed the arrival of merchant explorers from Portugal in 1513 who developed Macao into a major trading post for trade between China, Japan, India and Europe. The name Macao, which the Portuguese adopted, derives from A Ma Gao "a place of A Ma" in honour of the Goddess of Seafarers.
Despite the Dutch and the British becoming major world trading powers, the Chinese continued to trade through the Portuguese in Macao, so for over a century the British East India Company and others used Macao for business and as a recreational retreat. However, when the British established Hong Kong in 1841 most foreign merchants left Macao and, although it became a much quieter backwater, it remained a favorite stopover for international travelers, writers and artists.
Today Macao is a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, and, like Hong Kong, benefits from the principle of "one country, two systems".
Located on the Southeast coast of China to the western bank of the Pearl River Delta and bordering Guangdong Province, Macao is a part of China's territory, located 60km from Hong Kong and 145km from the city of Guangzhou.
The Macao SAR has an area of 28.2 sq. km, comprised of the Macao Peninsula (with 8.9 sq. km and connected to Mainland China), the islands of Taipa (6.5 sq. km) and Coloane (7.6 sq. km) and the reclaimed area COTAI (5.2 sq. km).
Besides the Barrier Gate (Portas do Cerco), the visitor can access Mainland China through the COTAI Frontier Post. Immigration and Customs are located in the reclaimed area between the islands of Taipa and Coloane.
With a new international airport operating 24 hours, Macao's location, within just a 3-hour flight from some one billion people living in China and across the Asia Pacific region, places it in the perfect position to become the new leisure, business convention and entertainment center of Asia.
