Macau

Macau (Macao, Aomen), like its neighbor Hong Kong, is a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China in the southern Guangdong province; it is heavily Buddhist, even though it was once an important locale for Christian missionaries. Although founded by the Portuguese as a colony in 1557, only around 3% of its population is currently Portuguese, with ethnic Chinese accounting for approximately 95% of its residents by the end of the 20th century. Due to the colonial Portuguese administration, Macau was heavily Catholic in the past, but now Buddhism claims more than 79% of the devoted and Catholicism retains about 5%; the remainder is divided between Protestants, Baha'is, Muslims, and a small Falun Gong community. Although Protestant Christianity does not account for a ...