Hong Kong–Macau relations
Hong Kong–Macau relations() refers to bilateral relations between Hong Kong and Macau. History Hong Kong and Macau are located at the east and west sides of the Pearl River Delta respectively, with a close distance of about in between. During the Middle Neolithic era, the areas now identified as Hong Kong and Macau were the same type of Neolithic culture. Tools and ornaments used by both places show tight relationship in idea and trade between the two. Hong Kong became the first European colony in East Asia occupied by the Portuguese Empire as Tamão in the early 16th Century. The Portuguese were defeated by the Ming Empire in Hong Kong in 1521, and eventually took Macau as their settlement at the Pearl River Estuary as a replacement. Macau has stood as the most important European entrepot in East Asia since the 17th Century. Only when Hong Kong fell into British hands in the early 1840s, did Macau begin to face regional competition from a more open and free British Hong Kong. Since then, Hong Kong and Macau have competed and cooperated as commercial centres in the Pearl River Estuary. Eventually Hong Kong developed as one of the busiest entrepots and