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Macau

I've got an idea. Perhaps this blog could be about the geography I learn talking to people in the multicultural city that I live in. I look up Wikipedia and talk to the people. They often don't seem to know some of the facts, but they also find a kind of comfort that someone recognizes that like the Philippines is named after King Philip of Spain or whatever.

I met a woman and her daughter, who was playing with my daughter. She said she was from Hong Kong. I noted the British left 22 years ago. She said the protests going on there were about extradition to China. I read once that Hong Kong had the most bookstores. I noted that I only know of 2 in Queens (Astoria and Kew Gardens).

Then she said she was actually from Macau. I looked that up. It's a gaming city that Portugal gave back to China in 1999. Three fourths of it is reclaimed land. Like Battery Park City in Manhattan.


Interesting facts: 4th highest life expectancy in the world. Big income disparity.

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