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Guangzhou

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Template:Infobox City Guangzhou is the capital and the sub-provincial city of Guangdong Province in the southern part of the People's Republic of China. The city is also known by an older English-language name, Canton. It is a port on the Pearl River, navigable to the South China Sea, and is located about 120km north-west of Hong Kong. As of the 2000 census, the city has a population of 6 million, and a metropolitan population of 12.6 million,[unverified] making it the most populous city in the province and the third most populous metropolitan area in China.

Name

The Chinese abbreviation of Guangzhou is Sui (穗; pinyin: sùi; Jyutping: seoi6; Yale: seuīh) or sometimes GZ. The city has the nicknames of Wuyangcheng (City of Five Rams), Yangcheng (City of Rams), Huacheng (City of Flowers), or Suicheng (City of Wheats). The city can also be referred to as the MuMianCheng (City of Ceiba). Template:Chinese

"Canton" was the convenient Portuguese or French romanisation of "Guangdong" Province.[unverified] The city Guangzhou is the capital of the province and frequently referred as 廣東省城 ("the Canton Province Capital City") or simply 省城 ("the Province City") by Cantonese people. The city naturally represents the province and thus was erroneously used as the city's name. It may have been more convenient for Europeans who during the colonial period generally did not understand Chinese nor the written logographic characters (see exonym and endonym). When the term "Canton" is pronounced in Portuguese it provides a closer oral rendering of the name in its original Cantonese.[unverified] Guangzhou is the pinyin romanisation of the Mandarin name for the city.

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.

CITIC Plaza

Administrative divisions

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

Districts
County-level cities

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.

Agglomeration or built-up area

Template:original research In China it is difficult to define the real builtup area because there is no legal definition and because of floating populations rarely taken into account. This can lead to very important underestimation for cities like Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shenzhen and many others undergoing fast development. There are nevertheless two ways of doing it:

  • Using official Urban Districts population statistics (and sometimes suburban) and add them to get an overview of the actual Built Up Area. This presents the inconvenience of sometimes encompassing vast rural areas incuded in urban or more often suburban districts. On the other hand, some of these definitions can neglect suburban districts which are largely part of the built up area (as in Wuhan for instance),
  • Using, generally admitted world definitions, all continuous built up area with a maximum of 200 m between two houses (except Highways, rivers and airports), whatever their juridictions (Cities, Towns, Councils, Districts, Departments... ) and add their figures to assess the actual Built Up Area of any City. In China, it'd consist of adding urban and suburban areas of any city with the same areas in adjoining cities or towns linked by urbanization (continuous built up area).

In Guangzhou, it would encompass 7 out of 10 Urban Districts (Yuexiu, Liwan, Haizhu, Tiane, Huangpu, Huadu and Nansha), but also built up districts of cities like :

  • Foshan : 3,389,000 Inh. in 2002, whose neighboring Guangzhou Districts (Nanhai, Changshen and Shunde) would add more than 3,000,000 Inh. to Guangzhou agglomeration,
  • Jiangmen : 3,740,000 Inh. in 2002, whose Districts are part of Guangzhou Built Up Area.

Thus, it's built up area population would reach more than 12,000,000 Inh. instead of the official 6,560,000 for urban districts proper and would be closer to the data released for the Metropolitan Area (12,600,000 Inh.), instead of general datas about 9,950,000 Inh. See Principal Agglomerations of the World, whose definition still remains unclear regarding chinese agglomerations.


History

It is believed that the first city built at the site of Guangzhou was Panyu (蕃禺, later simplifed to 番禺; Poon Yu in Cantonese) 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.

Recent archaeological founding of her palace suggests that the city might have traded frequently with foreigners by the sea routes. The foreign trade continued through every following dynasty and the city remains a major international trading port to this day.

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.

Although the Chinese name of Guangzhou replaced Panyu as the name of the walled city, Panyu was still the name of the area surrounding the walled city until the end of Qing era.

Arab and Persian pirates 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.[1][2][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.

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive to the city by sea, establishing a monopoly on the external trade out of its harbour by 1511. They were later expelled from their settlements in Guangzhou (in Portuguese Canton or Cantao), but instead granted use of Macau (first occupied in 1511) as a trade base with the city in 1557. They would keep a near monopoly of foreign trade in the region until the arrival of the Dutch in the early seventeenth century.

After China brought Taiwan under its control in 1683, the Qing government became open to encouraging foreign trade. Guangzhou quickly emerged as one of the most adaptable ports for negotiating commerce and before long, many foreign ships were going there to procure cargos. Portuguese in Macau, Spanish in Manila, and Armenians and Muslims from India were already actively trading in the port by the 1690s, when the French and English East India companies' ships began frequenting the port. Other companies were soon to follow: the Ostend General India Company in 1717; Dutch East India Company in 1729; the first Danish ship in 1731, which was followed by a Danish Asiatic Company ship in 1734; the Swedish East India Company in 1732; followed by an occasional Prussian and Trieste Company ship; the Americans in 1784; and the first ships from Australia in 1788. By the middle of the 18th century, Guangzhou had emerged as one of the world's great trading ports, which was a distinction it maintained until the outbreak of the Opium War in 1839 and the opening of other ports in China in 1842. The privilege during this period made Guangzhou one of the top 3 cities in the world.[4]

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 Britain and China. The other ports were Fuzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo, and Shanghai.

File:Situationskärtchen von Kanton, Makao, Hongkong.jpg
1888 German map of Hong Kong, Macau, and Guangzhou

In 1918, "Guangzhou" became the official name of the city, when an urban council was established in it. 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 from 1938-10-12 to 1945-09-16, after violent bombings. The Imperial Japanese Army established in the city the bacteriological research unit 8604, a section of unit 731, where japanese doctors experimented on human prisoners.

Communist forces entered the city on October 14, 1949. Their urban renewal projects 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.

Modern Guangzhou

Economy

Template:update Guangzhou is the economic centre of the Pearl River Delta and is the heart of one of mainland China's leading commercial and manufacturing regions. In 2006, the GDP exceeded ¥600 billions(USD 76.8 billions), per capita was ¥85,000 (about US $11,000), ranking First among the other 659 Chinese cities.[unverified]

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

Transportation

File:Guangzhou-bus.jpg
One of the new buses
The Guangzhou Metro station at Sun Yat-Sen University is among several stations that serve the city.

With the Guangzhou Metro, opened in 1999, Guangzhou is the fourth city in China to build an underground railway system. Currently there are four lines operational with an ambitious plan to expand rapidly with three lines under construction and four lines that are being planned.

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.

Since Monday, 1 January 2007, the city government has banned motorcycles from the urban area. From Tuesday, 16 January 2007, motorcycles found violating the ban will be confiscated.[5] The Guangzhou traffic bureau has reported reduced traffic problems and accidents since the motorcycle ban in downtown area.[6]

Fairs

Guangzhou International Motor Show in Guangzhou International Convention and Exhibition Center.

Guangzhou in recent news

Guangzhou will hold the 16th Asian Games in November 2010. The city would have to spend about 220 billion yuan (US$26.5 billion) in the run-up to the 2010 event to improve infrastructure, build an athletes' village, a new railway station, as well as completing the second phase of the new Baiyun International Airport.

Tourist attractions

File:Sacré-Cœur de Shizhi.jpg
Shishi Holy Heart Cathedral

Parks

Significant buildings

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

Media

Guangdong and the greater Guangzhou city is served by several Guangdong Radio stations and Guangdong TV. There is an international station Radio Guangdong which broadcasts information about this region to the entire world through the World Radio Network.

Culture

Education

Temple of the Six Banyan Trees

Major educational institutions

National

Public

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

Sister cities

Canton is twinned with the following cities:

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Welsh, Frank (1974). Maya Rao A Borrowed Place: The History of Hong Kong, p. 13. ISBN 1-56836-134-3.
  2. ↑ Needham, Joseph (1954). Science & Civilisation in China, p. 1, 179, Cambridge University Press.
  3. ↑ Sima Guang. Zizhi Tongjian (in Chinese).
  4. ↑ Top 10 Cities of the Year 1800
  5. ↑ Life of Guangzhou - Guangzhou Bans Motorcycles
  6. ↑ Life of Guangzhou - Traffic Jam Improve after Motorcycle Ban

External links

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