The Municipality of Macau () was one of two

municipalities of Macau A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the gov ...

, along with the Municipality of Ilhas.

Governance

Its bodies were the

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough cou ...

(''Câmara Municipal de Macau'') and the municipal assembly (''Assembleia Municipal de Macau'') (''Câmara Municipal de Macau Provisória'' and ''Assembleia Municipal de Macau Provisória'' after December 20, 1999). The two municipalities were replaced by the

Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau The Municipal Affairs Bureau (; ) of Macau is an administrative body without political powers responsible for providing certain civic services for the special administrative region and is the successor to the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bure ...

(Instituto para os Assuntos Cívicos e Municipais) in 2001.

History

In 1513,

Portuguese explorer Portuguese maritime explorations resulted in numerous territories and maritime routes recorded by the Portuguese on journeys during the 15th and 16th centuries. Portuguese sailors were at the vanguard of European exploration, chronicling and mapp ...

Jorge Álvares Jorge Álvares (died 8 July 1521) was a Portuguese explorer. He is credited as the first European to have reached China by sea during the Age of Discovery. His starting of settlements on an island in what is now Hong Kong is still considered a si ...

arrived in the

Pearl River Delta The Pearl River Delta Metropolitan Region is the low-lying area surrounding the Pearl River estuary, where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea. Referred to as the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area in official documents, ...

, in the

Shenzhen Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in the province of Guangdong, China. A Special economic zones of China, special economic zone, it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong ...

area, which he called

Tamão Tamão ( zh, 屯門) was a trade settlement set up by the Portuguese on an island in the Pearl River Delta, China. This was the first time Europeans reached China via the sea route around the Cape of Good Hope. The settlement lasted from 1514 ...

. A Portuguese settlement was started there. By 1535 traders were allowed to anchor their ships in the harbour. In 1887, the

Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Peking The Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Peking was a trade unequal treaty between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Qing China, signed on 1 December 1887. It is counted by the Chinese as among the unequal treaties in the aftermath of the Second Opium War. ...

was signed, allowing "the perpetual occupation and government of Macau by Portugal". According to

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

, "Macau may never have existed if not for Tamão" where the Portuguese learned "how China, the Pearl River Delta, and the South China Sea worked". The settlement and Jorge Álvares "kickstarted a chain of events that ultimately spawned Macau". A large stone sculpture of Álvares stands in downtown Macau.

Freguesias

Demographics

The population of the Macau Peninsula has been increasing rapidly for decades, particularly since the transfer of sovereignty to the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. With 45,675 inhabitants/km², Macau has one of the highest population densities of any urban area.

References

External links