Cotai

Cotai

Cotai (Chinese: 路氹城; Jyutping: lou6 tam5 sing4; Portuguese: Cotai) is a 5.2-square-kilometer (2.0 sq mi) piece of reclaimed land on the top of the Seac Pai Van between Taipa and Coloane islands in Macau 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 reclamation. 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. 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. 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.