Macau (MO)
Macau (/məˈkaʊ/; 澳門; 澳门; "Bay gate"), also spelled Macao.
Officially known as the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.
Macau is a special administrative region on the southern coast of the People's Republic of China. Macau lies on the western side of the Pearl River Delta across from Hong Kong, which is about 64 kilometers to the east, and it is also bordered by Guangdong of Mainland China to the north and the South China Sea to the east and south. With an estimated population of around 636,200 living in an area of 30.3 km2 (11.6 sq mi), it is the most densely populated region in the world.
As Portuguese Macau, it was administered by the Portuguese Empire and its inheritor states from the mid-16th century until late 1999, when it was the last remaining European colony in Asia under Portugal. Portuguese traders first settled in Macau in the 1550s. In 1557, Macau was rented to Portugal from Ming China as a trading port. The Portuguese Empire administered the city under Chinese authority and sovereignty until 1887, when Macau became a colony. Sovereignty over Macau was transferred to China on 20 December 1999. The Joint Declaration on the Question of Macau and Macau Basic Law stipulate that Macau operate with a high degree of autonomy until at least 2049, fifty years after the transfer. Under the policy of "one country, two systems", the State Council of the People's Republic of China is responsible for military defense and foreign affairs while Macau maintains its own legal system, the public security force, monetary system, customs policy, and immigration policy. Macau participates in many international organizations and events that do not require members to possess national sovereignty.
Postal History
Correios de Macau was founded on 1 March 1884 as a separate entity from China Post and a sub-member of the Universal Postal Union.[1] Prior to the transfer of sovereignty from Portugal to China in 1999, postage stamps bore the words REPÚBLICA PORTUGUESA ('Portuguese Republic' in Portuguese), but now bear the words MACAU, CHINA ('Macau, China' in Portuguese).
CTT Postmarks
Correios de Macau (CTT; Chinese: 澳門郵政; literally: "Macau Post"), formerly CTT Correios de Macau, is a department under the Government of Macau responsible for postal services. The acronym CTT comes from the former name of the department in Portuguese Correios, Telégrafos e Telefones (meaning Posts, Telegraphs and Telephones), which is still the name of the Portuguese postal administration.
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