An aerial drone photo taken on July 5, 2024 shows a night view of the Macao Tower (front) in Macao and Zhuhai of Guangdong in south China. [Photo/Xinhua]

The total value of imports and exports between the Chinese mainland and Macao reached 471.43 billion yuan (about 65.58 billion U.S. dollars) from January 2000 to November 2024, customs authorities said Wednesday.

Over the past 25 years since Macao's return to the motherland, the annual trade volume between the mainland and Macao increased from 4.87 billion yuan in 1999 to 27.01 billion yuan in 2023, representing an average annual growth rate of 7.4 percent, according to the Gongbei customs in Zhuhai, a city in south China's Guangdong Province bordering Macao.

In the first 11 months of this year, trade value between the two sides rose 9.7 percent year on year to 25.94 billion yuan.

Over the past 25 years, the market of the Macao Special Administrative Region has become increasingly attractive to mainland private enterprises, with their share of imports and exports increasing significantly, the data showed.

Macao's specialty pastries are popular among consumers on the mainland. In the first 11 months of this year, the mainland imported 135.6 tonnes of pastries from Macao, up 25.4 percent year on year.