【General Introduction】

Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong Province, is the province's political, economic and cultural center. Situated in southern Guangdong and northern Pearl River Delta, adjacent to South China Sea and in close proximity to Hong Kong and Macau, Guangzhou is a regional central municipality in South China and the southern gateway of the country.

Covering a total area of 7,434.4 square kilometers, Guangzhou administers 10 districts including Yuexiu, Haizhu, Liwan, Tianhe, Baiyun, Huangpu, Huadu, Panyu, Nansha and Luogang plus Conghua and Zengcheng, two county-level cities, with a total of 10 million residents including 7,607,720 permanent residents.

 

Guangzhou is a well-renowned cultural city with a history of over 2,000 years. As early as the 9th century BC, the local Baiyue people had started their contacts with the people of Chu Kingdom living in the Yangtze River area. Guangzhou was called Chu Ting then, which is the earliest known name of this city. In 214 BC, the 33rd year of the first Emperor of the Qin Dynasty (221 BC-206 BC), Nanhai Prefecture was established with its official residence located in Panyu (present Guangzhou) after Lingnan was unified. In 226, Sun Quan, king of the Kingdom of Wu in the Period of the Three Kingdoms (220-280), divided Jiaozhou Prefecture into two administrative regions -Jiaozhou and Guangzhou- aiming to facilitate his rule, giving birth to the present name Guangzhou. In 1921, Guangzhou became the official name of the city when the Guangzhou Municipal Council was founded. Guangzhou is also known as the City of Rams. As the legend has it, in ancient times five immortals holding ears of paddy rice descended in Guangzhou on five rams together with five pieces of auspicious cloud from South China Sea. They gave the ears to the local residents with their best wishes for bumper harvest and to become well-off forever. Then they left behind the five rams which eventually turned into stone statues. Guangzhou had developed into a prosperous place as early as in the Qin and Han Dynasty (206 BC-220). As the starting port of the ancient Maritime Silk Road during the Han and Tang Dynasty (618-907), Guangzhou was China's first trading port open to foreigners. It is also the starting point of China's contemporary and modern revolution.

【Economy】

With two crops per annum, quality rice is the main grain crop in Guangzhou while its main cash crops include vegetables, flowers and fruits. Its flowers and bonsai enjoy great fame far and wide.

Numerous large projects with strong economic driving force and high growth rate have been created after years of economic development in Guangzhou. Three industrial chains in the east, west and south are in place together with four pillar industries consisting of auto, iron & steel, ship-building and petrochemical.

A hi-tech industrial cluster consisting of software, biopharmaceutical and electronic information industry is in place on account of the rapid hi-tech industry development.

With innovative platforms and national-level industry bases such as software, electronic information, biopharmaceutical and cartoon animation well established, a fairly complete incubation network for sci-tech enterprises has been instituted, greatly promoting the integration between education, industry and research.

Guangzhou's main industries include auto, electronic information, petrochemical, exhibition, tourism, among others.

【Transportation】

As the transport hub in South China, Guangzhou boasts a diverse and multi-level transport network composed of airway, railway, roadway, waterway, subway and public buses.

【Local Specialty】                     

Guangzhou is recognized as "Home of Fruits" featuring a great variety of fruits such as litchi, longan, banana, pineapple, papaya, star fruit, among others. Local specialties also include Guangzhou style color porcelain, Guangzhou style embroidery, Guangzhou style jade carving, Guangzhou style wood carving, Lingnan bonsai, among others.

【Climate】

Situated in the south of the subtropical zone, Guangzhou has a typical southern maritime subtropical monsoon climate. Facing sea southward while bordering mountain northward, Guangzhou's maritime climate is highly remarkable characterized with warm weather, abundant sunlight and rainfall, slight temperature differences, long summer and short frost period.