Lapa, Dom João, and Montanha islands

Lapa, Dom João and Montanha are three islands located to the west of the Macau Peninsula and the Macau islands of Taipa and Coloane. They were inhabited by very small Chinese population in its early history.

History

In some historical registers, the Portuguese presence on the island dates back to the end of the 17th century when a group of missionaries established themselves on this Chinese island.

During the 19th century, Portuguese missionaries also began to populate and evangelize the other two islands. The Macau government also began to collect taxes from the populations of these three islands in exchange for protection as these islands were not protected by Chinese soldiers. The Portuguese built a leper colony on the island of Dom João and some schools to educate the few Chinese residents on the islands.

Followed by the Japanese invasion of China in 1938, the Portuguese officially occupied these three islands, with an excuse to better protect Portuguese missionaries residing there. In 1941, the Japanese Army threatened the Portuguese troops to force abandonment of these sparsely populated islands. Consequently, these islands were occupied by Japan. At the end of World War II, China was able to reoccupy the three islands.

Zhuhai

Zhuhai (/ˈdʒuːˈhaɪ/,Chinese: 珠海; pinyin: Zhūhǎi) is a prefecture-level city on the southern coast of Guangdong province in China. Located in the Pearl River Delta, Zhuhai borders Jiangmen to the northwest, Zhongshan to the north, and Macau to the south. Zhuhai was one of the original Special Economic Zones established in the 1980s. Zhuhai is also one of China's premier tourist destinations, being called the Chinese Riviera. The city's population is made up of mostly Mandarin speaking migrants. Its northern part made of Xiangzhou district is now part of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen built-up area, the biggest built-up area in the world with more than 44,478,513 inhabitants at the 2010 census encompassing the whole Shenzhen, Dongguan, Foshan, Zhongshan, Macao cities, main part of Guangzhou, and small parts of Jiangmen and Huizhou cities. According to a report released in 2014 by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Zhuhai is the most livable city in China.

Geography

Zhuhai borders the Macau Special Administrative Region (north and west), and 140 kilometres (87 miles) southwest of Guangzhou. Its territory includes 146 islands and a coastline of 690 kilometres (429 miles).

2903 Zhuhai

2903 Zhuhai (1981 UV9) is a main-belt asteroid discovered on October 23, 1981, by Purple Mountain Observatory at Nanking. It is a member of the Maria family of asteroids.

References

External links