[[File:Saopaulo Chinnery.jpg|thumb|right|[[Ruins of St. Paul's|St. Paul's Cathedral]] in the 19th century by [[George Chinnery]] (1774–1852)]]
[[Macau]] is a [[Special Administrativeadministrative Region of the People's Republicregions of China|Specialspecial Administrativeadministrative Regionregion]] (SAR) of the [[China|People's Republic of China]]. In 1557 itIt was leased to [[Portugal]] in 1557 as a [[trading post]] in exchange for a symbolic annual rent of 500 [[tael]]. inDespite order to stay in Macau, it remainedremaining under Chinese sovereignty and authority until 1887, the Portuguese came to consider and administer itMacau as a ''[[de facto]]'' [[colony]]. Following the signing of the [[Treaty of Nanking]] between [[Qing dynasty|China]] and [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Britain]] in 1842, and the signing of treaties between China and foreign powers during the 1860s, establishing the benefit of "the most favoured nation" for them, the Portuguese attempted to conclude a similar treaty in 1862, but the Chinese refused, owing to a misunderstanding over the sovereignty of Macau. In 1887 the Portuguese finally managed to secure an agreement from China that MacaoMacau was Portuguese territory.<ref>Robert Nield, "Treaty Ports and Other Foreign Stations in China", ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society'', Hong Kong Branch, Vol. 50,
(2010), p. 127.</ref> In 1999 it was handed over to China. Macau was the last extant European territory in continental Asia.
