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On May 5, 1998, the unveiling ceremony of the countdown device of Macao's returnto China was held at iananmen Square.

Located west of the Pearl River estuary in Guangdong Province, 40 nautical miles west of Hong Kong, Macao's 23.5 sq km of territory comprises the Macao Peninsula, Taipa Island and Coloane Island and is inhabited by about 450,000 people. Macao has been a part of Chinese territory since ancient times. When Emperor Qin Shi Huang unified China in the third century B.C., Macao was formally included in China's territory and became a part of Fanyu County, Nanhai Prefecture; later it was included in Xiangshan County (today's Zhongshan City). In 1553, the Portuguese bribed local government officials in Guangdong to gain permission to drop anchor in Macao's harbor and engage in trade. In 1557, the Portuguese began to settle nearby. In the period following the Opium War of 1840, taking advantage of the weakness of the Qing government, the Portuguese successively seized Taipa and Coloane islands to the south of the Macao Peninsula. In 1887, the Portuguese government forced the Qing government to sign the ¡°Draft Agreement of the Sino-Portuguese Meeting¡± and subsequently the ¡°Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Peking,¡± providing that ¡°Portugal will administer Macao and subordinate areas in perpetuity, as any other region governed by Portugal.¡± Since then, Portugal has occupied Macao.

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