How to know and Introduce Guangdong in English?

[size=2]Guangdong Province (; Postal System Pinyin: Kwangtung or Canton Province, Jyutping: gwong2 dung1), is a province on the south coast of the People's Republic of China. Sometimes, "Canton Province" (based on a French-derived transliteration of "Guangdong") is used to mean Guangdong. This is as opposed to "Canton (City)", which refers to the city of Guangzhou, the provincial capital. M:o3o I?H}AG'@
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The province is now one of the richest in the nation, with the highest total GDP among all provinces, and has managed to attract 30 million migrants. Its nominal GDP for 2003 was 165 billion USD, increased to 265 billion USD in 2005 (about the same size as Denmark) and it contributes approximately 12% of national economic output. Guangzhou and Shenzhen are among the four most important cities in China. u'g"D*g%DL

`6u Z&v3| "Guang" itself means "expanse" or "vast", and was associated with the region from the Western Jin Dynasty onwards. "Guangdong" and neighbouring Guangxi literally mean "expanse east" and "expanse west". Together, Guangdong and Guangxi are called the "Two Guangs" (???V liăng guăng). 5[Ie:S `J

(Z4^Z:U8g;e The modern abbreviation ??/?? (Yue) is related to the Hundred Yue (?????), a collective name for various peoples that lived in Guangdong and other areas in ancient times. [/size]

1. History

[size=2]Guangdong was far away from the centre of ancient Chinese civilization in the north China plain. It was populated by peoples collectively known as the Hundred Yue (?????), who may have been Tai-Kadai and related to the Zhuang people in modern Guangxi.
2Rx FT.R O1[6u Chinese administration in the region began with the Qin Dynasty, which, after establishing the first unified Chinese empire, expanded southwards and set up Nanhai Commandery (??????¨¨) at Panyu (?¡è???), near what is now part of Guangzhou. It used to be independent as Nanyue between the fall of Qin and the reign of Emperor Wu of Han. The Han Dynasty administered Guangdong, Guangxi, and northern Vietnam as Jiao Province (????). Under the Wu Kingdom of the Three Kingdoms, Guangdong was made its own province, the Guang Province (?V??), in 226. gi#n E^ O+U:R

p0t4hE T4|-T As time passed, the demographics of what is now Guangdong slowly shifted to Han Chinese-dominance, especially during several periods of massive migration from the north during periods of political turmoil and/or nomadic incursions from the fall of the Han Dynasty onwards. For example, internal strife in northern China following the rebellion of An Lushan resulted in a 75% increase in the population of Guangzhou prefecture between 740s-750s and 800s-810s.... As more migrants arrived, the local population was gradually assimilated to Han Chinese culture .gov..., or displaced.
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#EFC2f| Together with Guangxi, Guangdong was made part of Lingnan Circuit (?X????), or Mountain-South Circuit, in 627 during the Tang Dynasty. The Guangdong part of Lingnan Circuit was renamed Guangnan East Circuit(?V??¡§C|??¡è gu?¡ì?ng n?¡ì?n d?¡ì?ng l?¡ì?) in 971 during the Song Dynasty. "Guangnan East" is the source of "Guangdong".
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As Mongols from the north engaged in their conquest of China in the 13th century, the Southern Song Dynasty retreated southwards, eventually ending up in today's Guangdong. The Battle of Yamen (1279) in Guangdong marked the end of the Southern Song Dynasty. Y,wh#bM$mk3Q

h%[ X/O5a-x#Cs)\\ During the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, Guangdong was a part of Jiangxi. Its present name, "Guangdong Province" was given in early Ming Dynasty.
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K @ k_J Since the 16th century, Guangdong has had extensive trade links with the rest of the world. European merchants coming northwards via the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea, particularly the British, traded extensively through Guangzhou. Macau, on the coast of Guangdong, was the first European settlement in China (since 1557). It was the opium trade through Guangzhou that triggered the Opium Wars, opening an era of foreign incursion and intervention in China. In addition to Macau, Hong Kong was ceded to the British, and Kwang-Chou-Wan to the French. In the 19th century, Guangdong was also the major port of exit for laborers in southeast Asia and the Western United States and Canada.
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Historically, many overseas Chinese communities have origins in Guangdong and specifically Taishan, and together with more recent emmigrants from Hong Kong, Cantonese and Taishanese (the local dialect of Taishan), spoken by less than 10% of Chinese people in China, continues to have more speakers among the overseas Chinese out of proportion to its number of speakers in China. )b'o*ANT0p&RH


|6@M[1t!T During the 1850s, the first revolt of the Taiping Rebellion took place in Guangdong. Because of direct contact with the West, Guangdong was a center of anti-Manchu and anti-imperialist activity. The generally acknowledged founder of modern China, Sun Yat-Sen, was from Guangdong. 9?:j\dET3T
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During the early 1920s of the Republic of China, Guangdong was the staging area for KMT to prepare for the Northern Expedition, an effort to bring the various warlords of China back under the central government. Whampoa Military Academy was built near Guangzhou to train military commanders. F~l)t0\1m

d%f%W~q^ In recent years, the province has seen extremely rapid economic growth, aided in part by its close trading links with Hong Kong, which borders it. It is now the province with the highest gross domestic product in China. pz CqR'MHv$q
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Hainan island was originally part of Guangdong but it was separated as its own province in 1988.[/size]

2. Geography

[size=2]Guangdong faces the South China Sea to the south and has a total of 4,300 km of coastline. Leizhou Peninsula is on the southwestern end of the province. There are a few inactive volcanoes on Leizhou Peninsula. The Pearl River Delta is the convergent point of three upstream rivers: the East River, North River, and West River. The river delta is filled with hundreds of small islands. The province is geographically separated from the north by a few mountain ranges collectively called the Southern Mountain Range (????). The highest point in the province is about 1,600 meters above sea level. 6c]]C2~!Wa(J0H$`L
Guangdong borders Fujian province to the northeast, Jiangxi and Hunan provinces to the north, Guangxi autonomous region to the west, and Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions to the south. Hainan province is offshore across from the Leizhou Peninsula.
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/E8U_ L%?T Cities around the Pearl River Delta include Dongguan, Foshan, Guangzhou, Huizhou, Jiangmen, Shenzhen, Shunde, Taishan, Zhongshan and Zhuhai. Other cities in the province include Chaozhou, Chenghai, Kaiping, Nanhai, Shantou, Shaoguan, Xinhui, Zhanjiang and Zhaoqing. "L*DX#X%V_L!H7oeW9Q
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Guangdong has a humid subtropical climate (tropical in the far south), with short, mild, dry, winters and long, hot, wet summers. Average daily highs in Guangzhou in January and July are 18C (64F) and 33C (91F) respectively, although the humidity makes it feel much hotter in summer. Frost is rare on the coast but may happen a few days each winter well inland.[/size]

3. Economy

[size=2]After the communist takeover and until the start of the Deng Xiaoping reforms in 1978, Guangdong was an economic backwater, although a large underground, service-based economy has always existed. Economic development policies encouraged industrial development in the interior provinces which were weakly linked to Guangdong via transportation links. The government policy of economic autarchy made Guangdong's access to the ocean irrelevant.
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Deng Xiaoping's open door policy radically changed the economy of the province as it was able to take advantage of its access to the ocean, its closeness to Hong Kong, and historical links to overseas Chinese. In addition, until the 1990s when the Chinese taxation system was reformed, the province benefited from the relatively low rate of taxation placed on it by the central government due to its historical status of being economically backward.
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Although Shanghai is often cited as evidence of China's success, Guangdong's economic boom exemplifies the reality of the vast labor intensive manufacturing powerhouse China has become, and all the rewards and shortcomings that come with it. Guangdong's economic boom began with the early 1990's and has since spread to neighboring provinces, and also pulled their populations inward. The economy is based on manufacturing and export.
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Ka l7Y S%b+QM The province is now one of the richest in the nation, with the highest GDP among all the provinces, although wage growth has only recently begun to rise due to a large influx of migrant workers from neighboring provinces. Its nominal GDP for 2005 was 2.17 trillion yuan (US$267.6 billion), a rise of 12.5% on a year-on-year basis. Guangdong's primary, secondary, and tertiary industries were worth 137.46 billion yuan, 1.08 trillion yuan, and 957.94 billion yuan respectively . Its per capita GDP reached 23,616 yuan (US$2,912), a rise of 84.7% from 2000 . Guangdong contributes approximately 12% of the total national economic output . It has three of the four Special Economic Zones: Shenzhen, Shantou and Zhuhai. The affluence of Guangdong, however, remains very much concentrated near the Pearl River Delta.[/size]

4. Demographics

[size=2]Even though official statistics traditionally placed Guangdong as the 4th most populous province of China with about 80 million people, recently released information . suggests that there are an additional 30 million immigrants who reside in Guangdong for at least six months every year, making it the most populous province with a population of more than 110 million. The massive influx of migrants from other provinces, dubbed the "floating population", is due to Guangdong's booming economy and high demand for labour. Guangdong officially became the most populous province in January 2005.  
a*Z"I3d!}C'w@ Owing to the closeness of Guangdong to the ocean, Guangdong is also the ancestral home of large numbers of overseas Chinese. Most of the railroad labourers in the Western United States in the 19th century came from the province. Emigration in recent years has slowed with economic prosperity, but this province is still a major source of immigrants to the US.
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The majority of the province's population is Han Chinese. There is a small Yao population in the north. Other smaller minority groups include Miao, Li, and Zhuang. !Bo7b @ OL

zyluSi0G!i+`&g*] Because of the high population density and the close proximity in which humans and animals live, Guangdong has often been the source of respiratory diseases such as influenza. In late 2002, Guangdong was the initial source of SARS.[/size]

5. Politics

[size=2]During the 1980s, the Guangdong provincial government had a reputation of resisting central government directives, especially those regarding the economy. At the same time, the good economic situation of Guangdong has made it relatively quiet in the area of political and economic activism. Although some in the West assume that Guangdong's economic growth and distinctive language would give rise to separatism, this is not the case, and there has never been any significant support for separatism. *H6H-WR?
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%x"}K4W8R Relations with Hong Kong and MacaoB[ a[Sj2_@#FXy
Although both Hong Kong and Macau have historically been part of Guangdong before becoming colonies of the United Kingdom and Portugal, they became special administrative regions, a first-order administrative division, when their sovereignty was transferred to the People's Republic of China.[/size]

6.Culture

[size=2]Culturally speaking, Guangdong is not homogeneous. The central region, which is also the political and economic center, is populated predominantly by Cantonese-speakers. Cantonese is used as the regional lingua franca, along with Standard Mandarin as the national lingua franca for the 60,000,000 or so people of Guangdong who speak various local languages as their native language. This region is also associated with Cantonese cuisine (Simplified Chinese: ????; Traditional Chinese: ????), which is very well known in China, not just as one of the richest and most prestigious cuisines, but also as a cuisine specializing in exotic tastes. Cantonese opera (Simplified Chinese: ????; Traditional Chinese: ????) is a form of Chinese opera popular in Cantonese speaking areas.
&D8t7C9yho/V The area around the cities of Chaozhou and Shantou in eastern Guangdong, forms its own cultural sphere. Here, the people speak the Teochew, and their cuisine is Chiuchow cuisine. The northeastern hilly area of Meixian is populated by the Hakka people, who speak Hakka. Their cuisine is Hakka cuisine.[/size]

7.Administrative divisions

[size=2]The current immediate administrative divisions of Guangdong consist of 21 prefecture-level cities:
K9L1Xl:n~Z Chaozhou (?????) (Teochiu) *\alaax
Dongguan (????) (Donggoon)
\Yv[g!i0[ Foshan (?¡è???) (Futsaan) !G|F5en`? JX
Guangzhou (????) (Canton)
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Heyuan (????) (Hoyun) 0?l })`
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Huizhou (????) (Waizao) )EjtP{|
Jiangmen (????) (Gongmoon) 8t.Y*O @q0`{-r
Jieyang (????) (Keetyeung) 9Nm.e(~1PVT%Q
Maoming (????) (Mohming) a:M2bfF/Ps
Meizhou (??¡è??) (Muizao) `u
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Qingyuan (????) (Tsingyun) `QJK)y
Shantou (????¡è) (Seentao) [K7?O!X9Y`
Shanwei (????) (Seenmei) ca0R+~e*t
Shaoguan (????) (Seeoogoon)
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8W;Qr5yo[-F&WM Yangjiang (????) (Yeunggong)
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UmxYdDQ] Zhanjiang (????) (Sumgong)
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Zhongshan (????) (Zongsan) T g X5v:B0dJ-zB)U
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The above division govern, in total, 49 districts, 30 county-level cities, 42 counties, and 3 autonomous counties. See the list of administrative divisions of Guangdong for county-level divisions.[/size]

8. shenzhen

[size=2][color=Blue]I can not find Shenzhen in item 7, so I add it here in item 8.[/color];l4Fu^:G-t` Mu
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Shenzhen (; Hakka:cim1 zun4; Cantonese Jyutping: sam1 zan3; Yale: s?¡ì?m jan; Sham Chun or Shamchun in old or Hong Kong documents; lit. deep drains) is a sub-provincial city of Guangdong province in southern China, located at the border with Hong Kong. Shenzhen is a mecca of foreign investment and since the late 1970s has been one of the fastest growing cities in the world. It is also the busiest port in China. In the past two decades, more than $30-billion has been invested by outsiders in Shenzhen building factories and forming joint ventures.$g*a8?Y+Ba

kA~+Gk;s9u)L 1. history
D sd1w?W)|"P1X4A az The one-time fishing village of Shenzhen, singled out by late Chinese paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, is the first of the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) of China. It was originally established in 1979 due to its proximity to Hong Kong, then a prosperous British colony. The SEZ was created to be an experimental ground of capitalism in socialism with Chinese characteristics China. The location was chosen to attract industrial investments from Hong Kong since the two places share the same language, dialect and culture. The concept proved to be a great success, propelling the further opening up of China and continuous economic reform. Shenzhen eventually became one of the largest cities in the Pearl River Delta region which is one of the economic powerhouses of China and is the largest manufacturing base in the world. &W3G$bQ:T"D(q
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Shenzhen, formerly known as Bao'an County (????????), was promoted to prefecture level, directly governed by Guangdong province, in November 1979. In May 1980, Shenzhen was formally nominated as a 'special economic zone', the first one of its kind in China. It was given the right of provincial-level economic administration in November 1988.
?Vm{)J0Mq3Z Shenzhen is the earliest of the five special economic zones in China. The Chinese paramount leader Deng Xiaoping is usually credited with the opening up of economic revival in China, often epitomized with the city of Shenzhen, which profited the most from the first legacies of Deng. FgC3]@
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Shenzhen Municipality comprises six districts: Luohu (????), Futian (????), Nanshan (????), Yantian (????), Bao'an (??????), and Longgang (?¡§???). x%YE/Uv;E9|
The Special Economic Zone comprises Luohu, Futian, Nanshan, and Yantian but not Bao'an and Longgang. #yL)]&Y6N!M'lv`xHy
Located in the centre of the SEZ and adjacent to Hong Kong, Luohu is the financial and trading centre. It covers an area of 78.89 km². Futian, where the Municipal Government is situated, is at the heart of the SEZ and covers an area of 78.04 km². Covering an area of 164.29 km², Nanshan is the centre for high-tech industries and it is situated in the west of the SEZ. Outside the SEZ, Bao'an (712.92 km²) and Longgang (844.07 km²) are located to the north-west and north-east of Shenzhen respectively. Yantian (75.68 km²) is known for logistics. Yantian Port is the second largest deepwater container terminal in China and fourth largest in the world.
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oG _X8?3z 3. Geography
?&v*Xc5IV+eG!j]f The boomtown of Shenzhen is located in the Pearl River Delta. It covers an area of 2,020 square kilometres (780 square miles), with a population of thirteen million. Shenzhen is a sub-tropical maritime region, with frequent typhoons in late spring and early summer, but otherwise, this city has a pleasant climate, often blessed with cool breeze at night, with an average temperature of 22.4 degrees Celsius year-round (72 degrees Fahrenheit). zi;?
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It is located 160 km south of the provincial capital Guangzhou, 70 km south of the industrial city of Dongguan. To the northwest, resort city Zhuhai is a mere 200 km away, and it is 35 km north of Hong Kong. fv0j}%WvQ wn(cZ2~C

\7y8vc}!E&x_ 4. DemographicsrA'G!YG
Shenzhen has seen its population and activity develop rapidly since the establishment of the SEZ. With its official population listed at around nine million, but estimated at a total population of seventeen million in metropolitan and its peripheral areas in 2005, Shenzhen has been the fastest growing city in China for the past thirty years, and likely to be the most rapidly evolving city in the world. But one problem with such a rampant growth of population is the accompanied problem of people without hukou (with 70% of that number being residents without a permanent hukou), most "old" Shenzhenese felt that the practice of freeing the city to inland is making it less competitive with other Chinese cities. Among the reasons for this development is the cost of labour, which is substantially lower than in neighbouring Hong Kong. _X&^\1S~
There had been migrants flowing into the Shenzhen area since the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279 A.D.) and the number has been soaring after it was established as a city. In Guangdong, it is the only city where Mandarin is mostly spoken, with migrants from all over the country. At present, the average age in Shenzhen is less than 30. Among the total, 8.49 percent are between the age of 0 and 14, 88.41 percent between the age of 15 and 59, one-fifth between 20 and 24 and 1.22 percent are aged 65 or above. 'u:_^L!jA!Ka
The population structure polarizes into two opposing extremes: densely populated intellectuals with a high level of education, and migrant workers with poor education. T#G @7d k,j
According to the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, in 2002, 7,200 Hong Kong residents commuted daily to Shenzhen for work, and 2,200 students from Shenzhen commuted to school in Hong Kong. Though neighbouring each other, daily commuters still need to pass through customs and immigration checkpoints as travel between the SEZ and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) is restricted.
J#F,h|B1Ri7@ China relaxed travel restrictions to allow individuals from southern cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen, as well as Beijing and Shanghai, to visit Hong Kong in late July 2003. Previously, mainland travellers could only visit the city as part of tour groups. (See Individual Visit Scheme)
n+t!B/]c f~MA Immigration into Shenzhen from the Chinese interior is heavily restricted by the hukou system. One consequence is that just outside of Shenzhen there are large towns which consist of a large number of migrants from the Chinese interior who attempt to enter the city. o:K$SF2Q[J
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5. Economy
XB6|,zNS%_l In 2001, the working population reached 3.3 million. Though the secondary sector of industry had the largest share (1.85 million in 2001, increased by 5.5%), the tertiary sector of industry is growing fast (1.44 million in 2001, increased by 11.6%). Shenzhen's GDP totaled CNY 492.69 billion in 2005, up by 15 percent over the previous year. Its economy grew by 16.3 percent yearly from 2001 to 2005 on average, The proportion of the three industries to the aggregate of GDP was 0.3:51.6:48.1 in 2004 and 0.2:52.4:47.4 in 2005. The proportion of the tertiary industry to GDP was down by 0.7 percent. Shenzhen is in the top ranks among mainland Chinese cities in terms of comprehensive economic power. It ranked the fourth in GDP among mainland Chinese cities in 2001, while it ranked the top in capitation GDP during the same period. Its import and export volume has been the first in the last nine consecutive years. It is the second in terms of industrial output. For five consecutive years, its internal revenue within local budget ranks the third. It comes the third in the actual use of foreign capital.A iqJ{
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Shenzhen is also a major manufacturing center in China. One highrise a day and one boulevard every three days is one famous line referring to Shenzhen in the 1990s. With 13 buildings at over 200 meters tall, including the Shun Hing Square (the 8th tallest building in the world), Shenzhen is a marvel of lights after sunset.$a/_ZZat
Shenzhen is home to some of China's most successful high-tech companies, such as Huawei and ZTE. A number of foreign IT companies also have facilities in the city - FoxConn has a manufacturing plant based in Shenzhen where they make most of the iPods and laptops for Apple Computer. It appears to be shipping a large majority of the new Intel based machines at this stage.
md2N-RRF;FoZ1S The city has more than four hundred of the world's five hundred biggest companies. [/size]

I am in shenzhen now.

I find it in Google.com.
"fvjq+x|"m It is useful and funny to learn something about China/hometown in English.
c~;_1NcnE Hope you can enjoy it.

That is great! Thanks for sharing with us!

i find the place where i was born...
:g:NajV"JcH|y i feel so happy~~

I am in Shenzhen now. Thanks for LZ' information.

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   thanks for sharing wU0KPtV

:U'Rv|B&MD7^   i left guangzhou last month , now i am in xiamen m*B$fHg
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in my opinion, guangzhou is a involuted city:(

thanks for sharing :(

so long..... `p kP \)Qg
i am in zhongshan.......

thanks for sharing the useful information ?/C{:~G2g#C8\

_Gw;pREz I've lived in Guangdong for several year but I don't its history very well, you provide me with a good chance!