Cotai (Chinese: 路氹城; Cantonese Yale: Louhtáhm Sìhng; Portuguese: Cotai) is a 5.2-square-kilometer (2.0 sq mi) piece of reclaimed land on the top of the Seac Pai Bay between Taipa and Coloane islands in Macau[1] that has connected two independent islands since 2005. The name, which is a portmanteau of Coloane and Taipa, can also refer to the island formed by the reclaimation. In the second sense, the Special Administrative Region of Macau now consists of the Macau Peninsula, plus Cotai Island, about a mile to the south.[2]
Cotai was created to provide Macau with a new gambling and tourism area, since Macau is so densely populated and land is scarce. Many hotels and casinos can now be found on the island.[3] In 2006, a new hospital was founded in the Cotai area, the MUST Hospital, which is associated with the Macau University of Science and Technology Foundation.
History
In 1968, a causeway (Estrada do Istmo) connecting Taipa and Coloane was inaugurated.[4] Throughout the 1990s, a series of landfill works expanded this isthmus, and after the 1999 transfer of sovereignty over Macau from Portugal to China, further landfills began to expand this small isthmus further.
The "Cotai Strip" is a name designating the entire hotel-casino area, where the term "Cotai Strip" has been trademarked by Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which coined the phrase (USPTO Registration Nos. 4396486 and 4396486 for gambling and hotel services), and only applies to its properties.[citation needed]
As of October 2023, a number of new hotel-casinos have already opened in Cotai, with more in the pipeline for the ensuing years. Two of the most highly anticipated additions to the region are the Grand Lisboa Palace and the Lisboeta Macau, both scheduled to fully launch soon.[6][7]
Macau Light Rapid Transit - a mass transit system in Macau that began partial operations in 2019. Planned expansions will serve the Macau Peninsula, Taipa and Cotai, serving major border checkpoints such as the Border Gate, the Outer Harbor Ferry Terminal, the Lotus Bridge Border, and the Macau International Airport. The Ocean-to-Taipa-Ferry-Terminal line began operations in late 2019.
Note: The civil parishes are purely symbolic. There are currently no political administrative subdivisions in Macau, and instead, the Municipal Affairs Bureau handles some of the functions formerly handled by the abolished municipalities, the former had replaced the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau that was formed in 2002.
China
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