Macau City history

Once a sleepy and sleazy Portuguese colony – founded in 1557 during the great era of Portuguese overseas exploration –, Macau was handed back to China in 1999 to be ruled as a Special Administrative Region (like Hong Kong) - and subsequently moved into a high developmental gear.

The post-handover catalyst was the ending of local tycoon Stanley's Ho's 40-year monopoly on Macau's pivotal casino industry. New concessions were awarded to several Las Vegas kingpins, injecting new dynamism into Macau's tourism profile, and China mainlanders began to arrive in the millions in the territory, the only place where casinos are legal in China.

By 2006, Macau's neon-fuelled, casino-driven economy had overtaken Hong Kong in GDP growth, and goss gaming receipts outpaced those of Las Vegas for the first time.

Things have slowed down since those heady days. The global credit crisis and travel restrictions imposed by China on mainland visitors in 2008 have dealt a double blow to Macau's economy, knocking it off track from its galloping growth.