Macau or Macao, officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a population of about 680,000 and an area of 32.9 km2 (12.7 sq mi), it is the most densely populated region in the world.
The term "mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China excluding dependent territories of the PRC and other territories within Greater China. By convention, the territories that fall outside of the Chinese mainland include:
A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to practise there as such. For example, in England and Wales a solicitor is admitted to practise under the provisions of the Solicitors Act 1974. With some exceptions, practising solicitors must possess a practising certificate. There are many more solicitors than barristers in England; they undertake the general aspects of giving legal advice and conducting legal proceedings.
The governor of Hong Kong was the representative of the British Crown in Hong Kong from 1843 to 1997. In this capacity, the governor was president of the Executive Council and commander-in-chief of the British Forces Overseas Hong Kong. The governor's roles were defined in the Hong Kong Letters Patent and Royal Instructions. Upon the end of British rule and the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, most of the civil functions of this office went to the chief executive of Hong Kong, and military functions went to the commander of the People's Liberation Army Hong Kong Garrison.
The Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, or Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) for short, is an economic agreement between the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China, signed on 29 June 2003. A similar agreement, known as the Mainland and Macau Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, was signed between the Government of the Macau Special Administrative Region and the Central People's Government on 18 October 2003.
The title of Senior Counsel or State Counsel is given to a senior lawyer in some countries that were formerly part of the British Empire. "Senior Counsel" is used in current or former Commonwealth countries or jurisdictions that have chosen to change the title "Queen's Counsel" to a name without monarchical connotations, usually related to the British monarch that is no longer head of state, such that reference to the Queen is no longer appropriate. Examples of jurisdictions which have made the change because of the latter reason include Mauritius, Zambia, India, Hong Kong, Ireland, South Africa, Kenya, Malawi, Singapore, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago. Jurisdictions which have retained the monarch as head of state, but have nonetheless opted for the new title include some states and territories of Australia, as well as Belize.
Macanese patois, known as patuá to its speakers, is a Portuguese-based creole language with a substrate from Cantonese, Malay and Sinhala, which was originally spoken by the Macanese community of the Portuguese colony of Macau. It is now spoken by a few families in Macau and in the Macanese diaspora.
Prince of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a royal title normally granted to sons and grandsons of reigning and past British monarchs. The title is granted by the reigning monarch, who is the fount of all honours, through the issuing of letters patent as an expression of the royal will.
The use of the title of Princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is entirely at the will of the sovereign as expressed in letters patent. Individuals holding the title of princess are styled "Her Royal Highness" (HRH). On 18 April 1917, the newest granddaughter of Wilhelm II, German Emperor was styled a British princess from birth, even though Germany and Britain were fighting in WWI. Before the First World War, British Princesses also held additional German titles, such as Princesses of Hanover by virtue of being male line descendants of George III; or Princesses of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duchess of Saxony, by virtue of being male line descendants of Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. George V issued Letters Patent on 30 November 1917, to restrict the automatic assignment of the title "Princess" and the use of the style "Royal Highness" to the following persons:
Cantonese is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou and its surrounding area in Southeastern China. It is the traditional prestige variety of the Yue Chinese dialect group, which has over 80 million native speakers. While the term Cantonese specifically refers to the prestige variety, it is often used to refer to the entire Yue subgroup of Chinese, including related but largely mutually unintelligible languages and dialects such as Taishanese.
The peaked cap, service cap, barracks cover or combination cap is a form of headgear worn by the armed forces of many nations, as well as many uniformed civilian organisations such as law enforcement agencies and fire departments. It derives its name from its short visor, or peak, which was historically made of polished leather but increasingly is made of a cheaper synthetic substitute.
The free area of the Republic of China, also known as the "Taiwan Area of the Republic of China", "Tai-Min Area " or simply the "Taiwan Area", is a term used by the government of the Republic of China (ROC) to refer to the territories under its actual control.
The Organic Statute of Macau was a Portuguese organic law that provided for government in Portuguese Macau. Approved on 17 February 1976, the Portuguese legislation also reclassified Macau as a "Chinese territory under Portuguese administration".
The Hong Kong Royal Instructions 1917 was one of the principal constitutional instruments of Hong Kong when it was a British Crown colony and dependent territory; the other principal constitutional instruments were the Hong Kong Letters Patent 1917, the Hong Kong Letters Patent 1960, the Hong Kong Letters Patent 1982, and the Hong Kong Letters Patent 1991. The Hong Kong Royal Instructions 1917 has been amended many times since its coming into force by instruments titled 'Hong Kong Additional Instructions [year]'.
The Hong Kong Letters Patent 1917 was one of the principal constitutional instruments of Hong Kong when she was a British Crown colony and dependent territory; the other principal constitutional instruments were the Hong Kong Letters Patent 1960, the Hong Kong Letters Patent 1982, the Hong Kong Letters Patent 1991, and the Hong Kong Royal Instructions 1917. The Hong Kong Letters Patent 1917 has been amended many times since its coming into force.
British Hong Kong was a colony and dependent territory of the British Empire from 1841 to 1997, apart from a period under Japanese occupation from 1941 to 1945. The colonial period began with the occupation of Hong Kong Island in 1841 during the First Opium War. The island was ceded to Great Britain by the Treaty of Nanking, ratified by the Daoguang Emperor in the aftermath of the war of 1842. It was established as a Crown colony in 1843. The colony expanded to include the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 after the Second Opium War. Hong Kong's territory was further extended in 1898 when the British obtained a 99-year lease of the New Territories.
Royal instructions are formal instructions issued to governors of the United Kingdom's colonial dependencies, and past instructions can be of continuing constitutional significance in a former colonial dependency or Dominion.
The expression 'Hong Kong Letters Patent' is most commonly used to refer to the Hong Kong Letters Patent 1917, one of the principal constitutional documents of British Hong Kong ; however, it may also refer to any other Hong Kong Letters Patent or be used as a generic term covering all Hong Kong Letters Patent.
The Honourable or The Honorable is an honorific style that is used as a prefix before the names or titles of certain people, usually with official governmental or diplomatic positions.
The Macau Government Cantonese Romanization refers to the mostly consistent system for romanizing Cantonese as employed by the Government of Macau and other non-governmental organizations based in Macau. The system has been employed by the Macau Government since the Portuguese colonial period and continues to be used after the 1999 handover of the territory. Similarly to its counterpart romanization system in Hong Kong, the method is not completely standardized and thus is not taught in schools, but rather employed by government agencies to accurately display the correct pronunciation of Cantonese in public signage and official usage.
