Introduction

More popularly known to the western world as Canton, particularly after the Opium War (1839-1842), Guangzhou, the provincial capital of Guangdong, is one of China’s fastest developing cities.

Guangzhou, a capital city, is the largest and most prosperous trading city in southern China. It is situated in the south of China, with the Baiyun Hill in the north and the Zhujiang (Pearl River) Delta Plain in front. The city is 125 kilometers northwest of Hong Kong on the Pearl River.

The personality of Guangzhou differs significantly from that of northern China. While one can stand in the middle of Tian'anmen Square in Beijing and feel the backbone of Chinese authority, one can easily stand on any street in Guangzhou and feel the lack of order inherent in the traffic and commotion!
 

Trade figures heavily in this major commercial and manufacturing centre. Located on the Pearl River Delta, Guangzhou has been China’s most important southern gateway for more than 2,000 years. It was already a significant international trading port during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) and was the starting point of the Silk Road of the Sea, the maritime route for the transport of silk and other Chinese goods to the West. In the 16th century, it became a trading post of the Portuguese, and then the British in the 17th. Today, it remains a major import/export centre. China’s most important trade fair, the Canton Fair, has been held in Guangzhou twice a year since 1957.
 

Guangzhou is one of the 24 cities which are the first to have been announced as famous cities of historic and cultural interest in China. The history of 2,200 years has left behind many places of historic interest and scenic beauty. They are vivid witness of past brilliance of Guangzhou.

As early as in the 9th century B.C, together with the Chu people on the middle reaches of the Yangtse River, people there built Chuting, then they established Nanhai Prefecture in the Qin Dynasty, and Nanyue Kingdom in the Western Han Dynasty. Guangzhou is the starting point of the Silk Road on the Sea which links China with the Arabian and Western countries in trading. Before the Qing Dynasty, Guangzhou was China's only foreign trade port at sea. Guangzhou has the longest history among the international trade port cities in the world. Silk, porcelain and tea are the three main foreign trade commodities in Guangzhou in ancient times.

The spoken language of Guangzhou - Cantonese - is incomprehensible to northern Chinese, who typically speak Mandarin. A word in Cantonese has nine tones instead of the four tones in the Mandarin dialect. (The area around Guangzhou was overcrowded even 200 years ago, and many peasants from the region emigrated to Southeast Asia, North America, and Europe; as a result, Cantonese is the most common dialect among early overseas Chinese.)