Macau

The Macau Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, ?Chinese:??????????????? short form Macau or Macao (short form of Chinese: ???also informally known as "??") (see Names), is a small territory on the southern coast of China. It is 70 km southwest of Hong Kong and 145 km from Guangzhou. It was the oldest European colony in China, dating back to the 16th century. The Portuguese government transferred sovereignty over Macau to the People's Republic of China in 1999, and it is now run as a Special Administrative Region of the PRC. Residents of Macau mostly speak Cantonese natively; Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, and English are also spoken.

Miscellaneous

• Like Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, but unlike both mainland China and Portugal, traffic in Macau travels on the left, and the majority of vehicles are right hand drive. (Portugal and southern provinces of China also originally drove on the left.)
• Like Hong Kong, Macau also has a flower to represent the city. While the representative flower of Hong Kong is the Bauhinia, the representative flower of Macau is the lotus. The lotus is always used as a symbol of the Macau Special Administrative Region.