Macao Special Administrative Region (English: Macao, Portuguese: Macau), abbreviated as "Macao" and known as the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, is located in the south of China on the west side of the mouth of the Pearl River, at the land and water crossroads between the mainland of China and the South China Sea, adjacent to the Guangdong Province, and is 60 kilometers from Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and 145 kilometers from Guangzhou City in Guangdong Province. It is 60 kilometers away from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and 145 kilometers away from Guangzhou City in Guangdong Province. The Macao SAR consists of the Macao Peninsula, Taipa Island, Coloane Island, and Cotai (Cotai Reclamation), and as of September 2023, the total land area has expanded to 33.3 square kilometers. As of the end of 2023, the total population was 684,000 people. Macau has been a Chinese territory since ancient times. In the 32nd year of the Ming Dynasty (1553), the Portuguese were allowed to dock their ships at Macau's wharf for trade by bribing local officials in Guangdong; in the 36th year of the Jiajing Dynasty (1557), the Portuguese entered and began to settle in Macau; in the 20th year of the Daoguang Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty (1840), after the Opium War, Portugal, taking advantage of the Qing government's defeat in the war, consecutively invaded the islands of Taipa and Coloane, which are located to the south of Macau. The Government of the People's Republic of China has consistently advocated the peaceful settlement of this historical issue of Macao through negotiation at an appropriate time. Between June 1986 and March 1987, the Chinese and Portuguese governmental delegations reached an agreement after four rounds of talks and officially signed the Joint Declaration on the Question of Macao on April 13, 1987 in Beijing, and on December 20, 1999, China resumed the exercise of sovereignty over Macao and the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) was formally established. The MSAR is a local administrative region under the direct jurisdiction of the Central People's Government, practicing a capitalist system, and is an international free port, a world center of tourism and leisure, one of the world's four major gambling cities, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world, whose light industry, tourism, hospitality, and casinos have made Macao thrive as one of the most developed and affluent regions in the world. in 2021, the MSAR's Gross Regional Product reached MOP 239.4 billion.