The Border Gate is an important link between Macao and Mainland China.  Not only is it the main thoroughfare for travels between Macao and China, it has proven over the years to also have military and economic significance.  

Built in 1573, the original border gate was a traditional three-storey-high Chinese city gate house built by Xiangshan County during the Ming Dynasty, and guarded by officers and soldiers located in the central section of Guanzha Road; the original gate existed for over two centuries.  However, it was removed when the Portuguese began occupying the northern area of the city gate beginning in 1849; a new Border Gate of Macao, or Portas do Cerco, was consequently built in 1871.  A small remnant of the old gate, a stone tablet carved with the words “Guan Zha Men”, or Border Gate in Chinese, is affixed on the wall above a window at the lobby of the Leal Senado Building. 

The current western triumphal arch gate is located just near the Macao Special Administrative Region’s border checkpoint, with Zhuhai in the northern end of the Macao Peninsula.  The four dates carved on the surface of the Arch, “22 Agosto 1849”,  “25 Agosto 1849”, “22 Agosto 1870” and “31 Outubro 1871”, mark the corresponding dates of four important events - the assassination of Amaral, the Passaleão incident, and the start & finish dates of the Border Gate construction.