. Stamp Booklets of the World.

STAMP BOOKLETS OF THE WORLD.

MACAU.

Population (1995 est.) 490,901.
Currency:- Pataca.
Language:- Portuguese.

The tiny portuguese enclave of Macau is located across the Pearl River estuary from Hong Kong. A Portuguese trading post in 1557, leased from China until 1849 and later made a colony. On 11 June 1951 a Portuguese overseas province. During the height of the Cultural Revolution in China, Macau experienced serious anti-Portuguese rioting and the Government reportedly offered to abandon the territory within a month, but China refused the offer. In 1974, after the fall of the regime of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, the Portuguese Government again offered to return the colony to China. Anxious not to alarm Hong Kong or Taiwan, China refused. The Portuguese Government unilaterally declared Macau to be Chinese territory under Portuguese administration. In 1985, once negotiations between China and Britain on the future of Hong Kong had been successfully completed, Beijing turned its attention to Macau, and negotiated a settlement with the Portuguese under which Macau was to be returned to China in 1999, with arrangements for retaining some local autonomy as in Hong Kong. In 1988 the Government began to allow workers from China into Macau. The move was criticised by labour groups as a means of keeping wages down. Tourism was a large part of the economy with casinos being the main tourist attractions.
Macau has few natural resources, for some time China has provided part of its water and since 1984 part of its electricity. However, as of 1989, more than 90 per cent of the electricity used has been produced within the territory. In 1993, a law was approved to serve as a constitution when the territory became a Special Administration Region of China from 1999, with a government designated by a local electoral college and a Legislative Council in power until 2001.This document guaranteed the future of the market economy and the casinos, at least over this transition period, banning the imposition of Chinese tariffs, along with death penalties and life sentences of the type applied in the rest of the country. As of December 20 1999, Macau is to be added to the list of Special Economic Zones created by Deng Xiaoping in the provinces of Canton, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shantou, where some aspects of the market economy operate. *

First stamps issued 1st March 1884.

Macau stamp booklets.

1993 Year of the Rooster.

Cover.

Inside.

1995 Year of the Pig.

Cover.

Inside.

*Sources:- The World Guide 2000.
The Stamp Atlas.

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