In this report, readers will find some cultural facts of Macao.

1. Macao has three types of schools: public schools, church-run schools and private schools.

2. Macao practices a system of ten-year free education, which covers preparatory courses of primary school to the third year of middle school.

3. There are 123 schools in Macao, including three government-run Portuguese language schools, two private Portuguese language schools, 17 government-run schools for teaching both the Chinese and Portuguese languages and 101 private schools teaching the Chinese language.

4. Macao has five schools of higher learning, including four public and one private.

5. Macao had its first Chinese-language newspaper more than 100 years ago, now it has eight Chinese-language dailies and five weeklies, as well as three Portuguese dailies and two weeklies. In electronic media, there is one radio station and one television station.

6. Macao has some 210 various religious organizations, with nearly 200,000 followers. The number of temples, churches, community sites and mosques is up to 108.

7. Macao has 40 to 50 temples, most of which were built more than 100 years ago. The three most famous temples are the A-Ma Temple, the Puji Temple and the Lotus Temple.

8. Catholicism was introduced to Macao some 400 years ago, presently there are 20 to 30 churches.

9. Macao has some 10 Chinese and western music groups, of which the Macao Chamber Music Orchestra is the only professional artistic organization in Macao.

10. By the end of 1998, there are nine registered opera organizations in Macao, in addition to a dozen of amateur opera groups.

11. Macao has 14 public libraries, seven university and college libraries, more than 20 special libraries and reference morgues, and they collect a total of 600,000 books.

12. Macao has more than 30 non-governmental sports societies and over 500 branches. The Macao Sports Ground was built in 1997 with a seating capacity of 15,000 people.