  __notoc__  macau is a city on the southern coast of china. it is located at the south of guangdong province, on the tip of the peninsula formed by the zhujiang (pearl river) estuary on the east and the xijiang (west river) on the west. macau is situated 60&nbsp;km west of hong kong and 145&nbsp;km southwest of guangzhou, the capital of guangdong province. it is immediately adjacent to the zhuhai special economic zone. the region comprises the macau peninsula and the islands of taipa and coloane. macau was once an island but gradually a connecting sandbar turned into a narrow isthmus. land reclamation in the 17th century made macau into a peninsula, and a barrier gate was built to mark the separation between the peninsula and the mainland. pre-colonial records show that macau totalled only  but began to increase as a result of portuguese settlement. land growth has accelerated since the last quarter of the 20th century, from  in 1972 to  in 1983 to  square kilometres in 1994. macau's size has gradually increased as result of continued land reclamation, especially on taipa and coloane. in 2014, the total land area was approximately 30.3&nbsp;kmÂ². there is a  long border between macau and mainland china and a forty-kilometer-long coastline. the main border crossing between macau and china is the portas do cerco (barrier gate) frontier checkpoint on the macau side, and the gongbei checkpoint on the chinese side. ==location, size, border, and coastline== geographic coordinates:  area: total: 30.3&nbsp;kmÂ² land: 30.3&nbsp;kmÂ² water: 0&nbsp;kmÂ² land boundaries: total: 0.34&nbsp;km border city: zhuhai, guangdong province 0.34&nbsp;km coastline: 41&nbsp;km maritime claims: not specified ==topography== thumb|200px|right|the administrative divisions within macau ([http://maps.google.com/maps?q=macau&ll=22.170238,113.553143&spn=0.124626,0.166683&t=k&hl=en click here for satellite image]) location: eastern asia, bordering the south china sea and china terrain: generally flat elevation extremes: lowest point: south china sea 0 m highest point: coloane alto  macau has generally flat terrain resulting from extensive land reclamation, but numerous steep hills mark the original natural land mass. the modern high-rise skyline of macau obscures much of the hilly landscape. the macau skyline both defines and obscures its t
Geography_of_China Geography_of_Macau South_China