Macao jazzed up for its new record high yearly visitor arrivals of 20 million Sunday, as the Portuguese folk dance and the Chinese dragon and lion dance were presented at the city's six major tourism spots.

The yearly visitor arrivals had long been under 10 million prior to the region's return to the motherland in 1999, according to a press release issued by the Government Tourism Office.

The top 10 tourism markets of the region this year were the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, the United States, Singapore and Thailand, figures from the Office showed.

The Chinese mainland occupied some 54 percent of the total visitor arrivals so far this year, the figures showed.

The special administrative region has a population of 508,000 and an area of 28.2 square km. 

(Xinhua News Agency December 4, 2006)