Macau SAR China

Macau or Macao is a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China. With a population of about 710,000 people 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". 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. Originally a sparsely populated collection of coastal islands, 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. The city has one of the highest GDPs per capita and GDPs per capita by purchasing power parity in the world. It has a very high Human Development Index of 0.925, as calculated by the Government of Macau, and the fourth-highest life expectancy in the world. 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.