evidence: Macau is the other Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. Like Hong Kong, Macau was formerly a European colony, though it was not the British that controlled it, but the Portuguese. In 1557, Portuguese sailors arrived in Macau for the first time. In 1582, Portugal signed a land lease with China, formally bringing Macau under Portuguese control. From then on, the city became a thriving trading port. By the mid-19th century, however, trade was on the decline, especially after China ceded Hong Kong to the British, and larger ships began taking advantage of Hong Kong’s deep-water port. To help reverse Macau’s decline, Portugal made it a free port, and declared it a Portuguese colony independent of China. But the most fundamental period of Macau’s economic development came after it was ceded back to Chinese control in 1999.