I have attempted to dig this thread out from more than a year of hibernation. Lets travel to Macau, in the eastern shores of China, once a Portugues colony which has amalgameted with China recently. Macau The members of the South Sung dynasty and 50,000 followers were the first recorded inhabitants of Macau, who were seeking refuge from the invading Mongols from 1277. They were able to defend themselves and established settlement there. Macau did not develop as a major until the Portuguese arrived in the 16th century. The Portuguese used Macau as a staging port and a Portuguese Municipal government was established but China did not recognize Portuguese sovereignty. The first Portuguese governor was appointed in Macau in 1680 but China continued to have influence, collecting tax and customs. Portugal continued to pay tax to China until 1849, when the Portuguese abolished the Chinese customs and declared Macau independent. The Chinese retaliated which resulted in the assassination of Gov. Ferreira do Amaral. In 1887, the Manchu government acknowledged the Portugues right of 'perpetual occupation'. The Protocol of Lisbon, which was the agreement between the Manchu and Portuguese governments, contained the condition that it will never surrender Macau to a third party with permission of China. During the second world war, Macau enjoyed a brief periof of prosperity as the only neutral port in South China, after the Japanese invaded Canton and Hongkong. When the communists came to power in 1949, they declared the Protocol of Lisbon to be invalid as an 'unequal treaty' imposed by the foreigners on China. Portugal and China established diplomatic relations in 1979 followed by Gen. Melo Egidio's visit to China, who was the first Governer of Macau to visit China. In 1987 an agreement was signed for returning Macau to Chinese sovereignty as a Special Administrative Region(SAR) of China which materalized on December 20, 1999. source: http://www.historyofnations.net/asia/macau.html http://world-history-blog.blogspot.com/2007/01/history-of-macau.html map source: http://i.infoplease.com/images/mmacau.gif