Guangzhou: Encyclopedia - Guangzhou

Guangzhou

Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong Province in southern China. Its international name was formerly Canton City or simply Canton, after a French language transliteration of the name of the city in Cantonese. It is a port on the Pearl River, which is navigable to the South China Sea. As of the 2000 census, the population of the city was 9.94 million making it the most populous city in the province and fifth most populous in China.

Guangzhou - Name

The Chinese abbreviation of Guangzhou is Sui (穗; pinyin: sùi; Jyutping: seoi6; Yale: seuīh) or sometimes GZ. This city has the nicknames of Wuyangcheng (city of five rams), Yangcheng (city of rams), Huacheng (city of flowers), or Suicheng.

Canton, the French diplomatic romanisation for Europeans who could not understand ideographic characters at that time, when pronounced in French, is a closer oral rendering of the name in its original Cantonese. Guangzhou is a Mandarin pronunciation of the Han ideographs.

Guangzhou - Administrative divisions

Guangzhou is a sub-provincial city. It has direct jurisdiction over ten districts and two county-level cities.

• Yuexiu District
• Liwan District
• Haizhu District
• Tianhe District
• Baiyun District
• Huangpu District
• Huadu District
• Panyu District
• Nansha District
• Luogang District

As of April 28, 2005, the districts of Dongshan and Fangcun have been abolished and merged into Yuexiu and Liwan respectively; at the same time the district of Nansha is established out of parts of Panyu, and the district of Luogang is established out of parts of Baiyun, Tianhe, Huangpu, and Zengcheng.

Guangzhou - History

It is believed that the first city built at the site of Guangzhou was Panyu (番禺; the locals pronounced this in Cantonese as Poon Yu) founded in 214 BC. The city has been continuously occupied since that time. Panyu was expanded when it became the capital of the Nanyue Kingdom (南越) in 206 BC.

The Han Dynasty annexed Nanyue in 111 BC, and Panyu became a provincial capital and remains so until this day. In 226 AD, the city became the seat of the Guang Prefecture (廣州; Guangzhou). Therefore, "Guangzhou" was the name of the prefecture, not of the city. However, people grew accustomed to calling the city Guangzhou, instead of Panyu.

Arabs ¹ and Persians sacked Guangzhou (known to them as Sin-Kalan) in AD 758, ² according to a local Guangzhou government report on October 30, 758, which corresponded to the day of Guisi (癸巳) of the ninth lunar month in the first year of the Qianyuan era of Emperor Suzong of the Tang Dynasty. ³

During the Northern Song Dynasty, a celebrated poet called Su Shi visited Guangzhou's Baozhuangyan Temple and wrote the inscription "Liu Rong" (Six Banyan Trees) because of the six banyan trees he saw there. It has since been called the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees.

In 1711, the British East India Company established a trading post in Guangzhou. The Qianlong Emperor restricted foreign traders to a district in Guangzhou under the Canton System in 1760.

Guangzhou was one of the five Chinese treaty ports opened by the Treaty of Nanking (signed in 1842) at the end of the First Opium War between United Kingdom and China. The other ports were Fuzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo and Shanghai.

In 1918, "Guangzhou" became the official name of the city, when an urban council was established in Guangzhou. Panyu became a county's name south of Guangzhou. In both 1930 and 1953, Guangzhou was promoted to the status of a Municipality, but each promotion was cancelled within the year. Japanese troops occupied Guangzhou between October 12, 1938 and September 16, 1945.

After the communist take-over, urban renewal projects in the city improved the lives of many residents. New housing on the shores of the Pearl River provided homes for the poor boat people. Reforms by Deng Xiaoping, who came to power in the late 1970s, led to rapid economic growth due to the city's close proximity to Hong Kong and access to the Pearl River.

As labor costs increased in Hong Kong, manufacturers opened new plants in the cities of Guangdong including Guangzhou. As the largest city in one of China's wealthiest provinces, Guangzhou attracts farmers from the countryside looking for factory work. Cantonese links to overseas Chinese and beneficial tax reforms of the 1990s have aided the city's rapid growth.

In 2000 Huadu and Panyu were merged into Guangzhou as districts, and Conghua and Zengcheng became county-level cities of Guangzhou.

Guangzhou - Geography

Guangzhou is located at 112°57'E to 114°3'E and 22°26'N to 23°56'N. The city is part of the Pearl River Delta.

Guangzhou - Economy

The Pearl River Delta one of mainland China's leading economic regions and a massive manufacturing centre.

The GDP per capita was ¥38568 (ca. US$4660) in 2003, ranked no. 8 among 659 Chinese cities.

The Chinese Export Commodities Fair, also called "Canton Fair", is held each spring and autumn. Inaugurated in the spring of 1957, the Fair is a major event for the city.

Guangzhou - Transportation

The Guangzhou Subway opened in 1999.

Guangzhou's main airport is the New Baiyun International Airport in Huadu District, that opened on 5 August 2004 replacing old Baiyun International Airport close to the city centre.

Guangzhou is connected to Hong Kong by train, bus and ferry services. Express trains arrive in Hong Kong at the Hung Hom KCR station. They cover the 182 km route in approximately two hours. Daily ferry sailings include an overnight steamer, which takes eight hours, and high-speed catamarans and hydrofoils which take three hours to reach the China Ferry Terminal or Macau Ferry Pier in Hong Kong.

Guangzhou - Culture

• Cantonese (linguistics)
• Cantonese cuisine
• Cantonese opera

Guangzhou - Tourist attractions

• Shamian Island
• Guangdong Provincial Museum
• Museum of the Tomb of the King of Southern Yue in Western Han Dynasty
• Temple of the Six Banyan Trees
• Shishi Holy Heart Cathedral
• Huaisheng Mosque

Guangzhou - Other buildings

• Guangdong Olympic Stadium
• CITIC Plaza
• Sky Central Plaza
• Guangdong TV Tower
• Guangzhou TV Tower
• China Hotel

Plans are also underway to build what will become the world's tallest free-standing TV tower.

Guangzhou - Sister cities

Guangzhou keeps sister city relationships with the following cities:

• Fukuoka, Japan (May, 1979)
• Los Angeles, USA (March 2, 1982)
• Manila, Philippines (November, 1982)
• Vancouver, Canada (March, 1985)
• Sydney, Australia (May, 1986)
• Bari, Italy (November, 1986)
• Frankfurt am Main, Germany (April 11, 1988)
• Lyon, France (November, 1988)
• Auckland, New Zealand, (February, 1989)
• Kwangju, Korea (October, 1996)
• Linköping, Sweden (November, 1997)
• Durban, South Africa (July, 2000)
• Bristol, United Kingdom (May, 2001)
• Yekaterinburg, Russia (July 10, 2002)
• Arequipa, Peru (October 27, 2004)

Guangzhou - Colleges and Universities

National

• Jinan University (暨南大学) (founded 1906)
• Sun Yat-sen University (中山大学) (founded 1924)
• South China University of Technology (华南理工大学)

Public

• Guangdong University of Foreign Studies (广东外语外贸大学)
• South China Agricultural University (华南农业大学) (founded 1909)
• Zhongkai Agrotechnical College (仲恺农业技术学院) (founded 1927)
• South China Normal University (华南师范大学)
• Guangzhou Medical College (广州医学院)
• Guangzhou University of TCM (广州中医药大学)
• Guangdong College of Pharmacy (广东药学院)
• Guangdong University of Technology (广东工业大学)
• Guangzhou University (广州大学)
• Guangdong Business College (广东商学院)
• Xinghai Conservatory of Music (星海音乐学院)
• GuangDong Polytechnic Normal University (广东技术师范学院)
• Guangzhou Physical Education Institute (广州体育学院)

Note: Institutions without full-time bachelor programs are not listed.

Guangzhou - Astronomical phenomena

The previous total solar eclipse as seen from Guangzhou (downtown) was Solar eclipse of 1814-Jul-17 (July 17, 1814).

Guangzhou - Footnotes

See also

• Whampoa Military Academy
• Guangzhou Uprising (1927)
• Canton porcelain
• Lingnan University (Guangzhou)

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Guangzhou", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki