Guangzhou, known as Canton in the past, is an ancient city located in southern China and the provincial capital of Guangdong. In 9th century BC, there had been native people living in the area, who had some trade relations with the population of Yangtze River regions. But the present name of the city had been obtained in 226 AD, when Sun Quan, the founder of Wu State during the Three Kingdoms Period, for the sake of administrative convenience, divided Jiaozhou into Jiaozhou and Guangzhou. The latter became the city we know now. In 1921, Guangzhou city government was established and the name was designated to the city.
Since then, Guangzhou has always been a prosperous city and busy port in the south. Traditionally, it was the starting point of the Silk Road of the Sea. During the Qing Dynasty Guangzhou was the first port opened to foreign trade. Just because it was a quite developed city in China at that time, Guangzhou had long been a heroic and revolutionary city. Many anti-colonial movements and democratic uprisings had taken place in its modern history. Dr. Sun Yat-sen founded the historically important Whampoa Military Academy, and Mao Zedong established Communist peasants' movement lecture hall here. Many litterateurs came to Guangzhou professing their new thoughts and advanced culture.
The Sheep Legend of Guangzhou
The city has sometimes been known as Five-sheep City or Spike City. A legend goes that during Zhou Dynasty (1066 BC - 256 BC) consecutive disasters had made people's life extremely hard. One day, there were five pieces of auspicious and colorful cloud waving in direction to Guangzhou from South China Sea, each of which was stood an immortal being riding a celestial sheep that held paddy spikes of five colors in its mouth. They gave the paddy spikes to the people and blessed them that there will be no famine in the future. The beings left the city but the sheep not, they loved the place and the people very much. In tribute the great immortals and the pretty creatures the locals built a temple called Wuxianguan (Five-immortal Temple), with the statues of all of them erected inside. Additionally, there are a lot of cultural relics waiting you to explore in your Guangzhou tour. Some of the attractions have been applied for UNESCO's list of World Cultural Heritage.
Today's Guangzhou is one of the economic powerhouses in China. Excellent investment environment since the implementation of the Reform and Opening-up Policy about 30 years ago has attracted many merchants and entrepreneurs around the world. There are five economic development zones in the city.
People
Guangzhou is the most beloved city for the returned overseas Chinese in China. Traditionally, Guangzhou has been the origins of most of the Chinese migrated to foreign countries. Nowadays the returned overseas Chinese and their relatives, as well as people from Hong Kong and Macau living in Guangzhou covered about 35 per cent of total population in the city. According to census in 2006, Guangzhou has around 9,760,000 people. It ranked the fifth most populous city in China. Ethnic minority just accounted about 1.4 per cent. Cantonese is the local dialect, which is also spoken in Hong Kong and Macau.
Transportation
Guangzhou is the third biggest port in China and the main logistics center in the south of the country. It has trade links to about 500 ports in 170 countries or regions around the world. There are passenger ferry services to Hong Kong and inland waterway boats to towns in Guangdong and Guangxi Provinces.
Railway services to the nation's capital Beijing and Hong Kong SAR are frequently available. There are trains to various towns and villages inside the province.
The public bus system is quite advanced and very convenient, without conductor to collect fares. Commonly you need one Yuan for a bus trip and two Yuan onboard an air-con one. Most buses have station report in Putonghua and Cantonese, with some key routes have English. You can also use a credit card sized electronic purse which looks like the Octopus system in Hong Kong to pay fare in bus, subway, taxi and ferry.
Guangzhou's Metro has four lines nowadays, with four more are to be available in the year 2010, when the city will hold the Asian Games, to meet the rapidly increasing traffic demand.
Baiyun International Airport was built in 1930s. Today it is the third busiest airport in China. It serves as international and domestic airport, with about 110 flights to cities in China and foreign countries. The airport is 30km from the starting station of the Airport Railway in downtown Guangzhou. There are also 8 bus routes as far as it from air ticket service center and Central Hotel etc.
Geography
Guangzhou locates near the southern coast of China about 100km to the north of Hong Kong. It is a gateway to the world. Low mountains are throughout the northeastern part of the city, while the southeast is a plain situated on Pearl River Delta. The river is flowing through Guangzhou's center.
Climate
It is a typical subtropical climate here with an annual mean temperature hovers about 23 degrees Celsius (73'F). Guangzhou is notoriously hot and humid in summertime with daily high often hits above 33'C, but cold winter is seldom. So Guangzhou has been branded as the one of the cities of least yearly temperature difference in China. Generally, the best time to have a Guangzhou tour is between October and December.
Related source:
Guangzhou on Wikipedia
Guangzhou on Youtube
Guangzhou on Flicker