Macau

Dinosaur on postmark of Macau

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Contents:
Macau, officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea.
With a population of about 680,000 and an area of 32.9 km2, it is the most densely populated region in the world.

Formerly a Portuguese colony, colonized by the Portuguese in the 16th century, Macau was the first European settlement in the Far East. The territory of Portuguese Macau was first leased to Portugal as a trading post by the Ming dynasty 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. Pursuant to an agreement signed by China and Portugal on 13 April 1987, Macau became the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China on 20 December 1999.
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".
Originally a sparsely populated collection of coastal islands, Macau, often referred to as the "Las Vegas of the East", has become a major resort city and a top destination for gambling tourism, with a gambling industry seven times larger than that of Las Vegas.
The city has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, and its GDP per capita by purchasing power parity is one of the highest in the world. It has a very high Human Development Index, as calculated by the Macau government, and the fourth-highest life expectancy in the world. The territory is highly urbanised; two-thirds of the total land area is built on land reclaimed from the sea. [R1]

The first stamps issued for Macau, appearing in 1884, used the common "Portuguese crown" design for nine values ranging from 5 to 300 reis. Later in 1884, an 80-reis value was produced as a surcharge on the 100-reis value; in 1885 an 80-reis value of the crown design went on sale. Also in 1885, five values were re-issued in new colors. Shortages of values continued through 1887, resulting in a variety of surcharges on both postage stamps and revenue stamps [R2]



Postmarks of Macau related to Paleontology

23.10.1993 "Dinosaurs in Maritime Museum of Macau" [PM1]
Stylized dinosaur on commemorative postmark of Macau 1993

Notes:
[PM1] The Maritime Museum in Macau.
A cover of the Maritime Museum of Macau
A cover of the Maritime Museum of Macau.
In 1986, Lieutenant Colonel Su Lizhi, the then Director of the Marine Department (now the "Marine and Water Bureau") proposed the establishment of a Maritime Museum, and chose an ancient and beautiful building in front of the A-Ma Temple as the exhibition building. Since its opening in 1987, the increasing number of visitors, combined with donations and newly acquired collections, made it urgent for the museum to open a new and spacious exhibition building. On June 24, 1990, a new exhibition building was officially inaugurated and has been in use since then. The front building of the exhibition building is designed in the form of a boat. It is located beside the estuary, on the side of the A-Ma Temple dedicated to the female protector of fishermen (Mazu), and is in the same square as the old building that has been converted into the museum office.




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Acknowledgements:
Many thanks to Dr. Peter Voice from Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Western Michigan University, for reviewing the draft page and his valuable comments.


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