Chinese start countdown to Macao handover

China has begun a countdown to mark the return of the Portuguese-controlled enclave of Macao to Chinese sovereignty, an event due to take place two years from today Saturday.

Chinese radio and television networks have started a series of programmes on Macao's history, and the press has hailed the handover as a great historical event.

The BBC's Beijing correspondent says Macao has experienced a range of social problems in recent years, including unemployment, illegal immigration from China and an increasingly bloody confrontation between its police and Triad gangs involved in the gambling trade.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service