Guangzhou

For other uses, see Guangzhou (disambiguation) or Canton.

Guangzhou,^{[lower-alpha 1]} previously romanized as Canton^[6] or Kwangchow,^[7] is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China.^[8] Located on the Pearl River about 120 km (75 mi) north-northwest of Hong Kong and 145 km (90 mi) north of Macau, Guangzhou has a history of over 2,200 years and was a major terminus of the Silk Road.^[9]

Guangzhou 广州市 Canton; Kwangchow
Prefecture-level and sub-provincial city
Canton Tower in front of the Pearl River Guangzhou Library Canton Fair Complex Liurong Temple Five-Ram Sculpture Sacred Heart Cathedral Zhenhai Tower Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall
Nicknames:  City of Rams, City of Flowers, City of Rice Spike
Location of Guangzhou City jurisdiction in Guangdong
Guangzhou Location of the city center in Guangdong Show map of Guangdong Guangzhou Guangzhou (China) Show map of China
Coordinates (Guangdong People's Government): 23°07′48″N 113°15′36″E
Country	China
Province	Guangdong
Settled	214 BC
Founded by	Qin dynasty
Municipal seat	Yuexiu District
Government
• Type	Sub-provincial city
• Body	Guangzhou Municipal People's Congress [zh]
• CCP Secretary	Guo Yonghang
• Congress Chairman	Wang Yanshi
• Mayor	Sun Zhiyang
• CPPCC Chairman	Li Yiwei
Area [1]
• Prefecture-level and sub-provincial city	7,434.4 km2 (2,870.4 sq mi)
• Urban	2,256.4 km2 (871.2 sq mi)
• Metro	20,144.1 km2 (7,777.7 sq mi)
Elevation	21 m (69 ft)
Population  (2020 census)[2]
• Prefecture-level and sub-provincial city	18,676,605
• Density	2,500/km2 (6,500/sq mi)
• Urban	26,940,000
• Urban density	12,000/km2 (31,000/sq mi)
• Metro	32,623,413
• Metro density	1,600/km2 (4,200/sq mi)
Demonym	Cantonese
GDP[3]
• Prefecture-level and sub-provincial city	CN¥ 2.823 trillion US$ 437.7 billion
• Per capita	CN¥ 151,162 US$ 23,436
Time zone	UTC+08:00 (China Standard Time)
Postal code	510000
Area code	(0)20
ISO 3166 code	CN-GD-01
License plate prefixes	粤A
City Flower	Bombax ceiba
City Bird	Chinese hwamei
Languages	Cantonese, Standard Chinese
Website	gz.gov.cn

Guangzhou
"Guangzhou" in Simplified (top) and Traditional (bottom) Chinese characters
Hanyu Pinyin	Guǎngzhōuⓘ
Cantonese Yale	Gwóngjāuⓘ
Postal	Canton Kwangchow
Literal meaning	"Broad Prefecture"
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Guǎngzhōuⓘ Bopomofo ㄍㄨㄤˇ   ㄓㄡ Gwoyeu Romatzyh Goangjou Wade–Giles Kuang3-chou1 Tongyong Pinyin Guǎngjhou Yale Romanization Gwǎngjōu IPA [kwàŋ.ʈʂóʊ] Wu Romanization Kuaon-tseu Hakka Romanization Kong3-ziu1 Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Gwóngjāuⓘ Jyutping gwong2 zau1 IPA [kʷɔŋ˧˥.tsɐw˥] Southern Min Hokkien POJ Kńg-chiu
abbreviation
Chinese	穗
Hanyu Pinyin	Suì
Cantonese Yale	Seuih
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Suì Bopomofo ㄙㄨㄟˋ Gwoyeu Romatzyh Suey Wade–Giles Sui4 Tongyong Pinyin Suèi Yale Romanization Swèi IPA [swêɪ] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Seuih Jyutping seoi6 IPA [sɵɥ˨]

The port of Guangzhou serves as a transportation hub and Guangzhou is one of China's three largest cities.^[10] For a long time it was the only Chinese port accessible to most foreign traders. Guangzhou was captured by the British during the First Opium War and no longer enjoyed a monopoly after the war; consequently it lost trade to other ports such as Hong Kong and Shanghai, but continued to serve as a major entrepôt. Due to a high urban population and large volumes of port traffic, Guangzhou is classified as a Large-Port Megacity, the largest type of port city in the world. Following the Second Battle of Chuenpi in 1841, the Treaty of Nanking was signed between Sir Robert Peel on behalf of Queen Victoria and Lin Zexu on behalf of Emperor Xuanzong and has ceded Hong Kong to the United Kingdom on 26 January 1841 after the agreement of the Convention of Chuenpi.^[11]

Guangzhou is at the heart of the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macau Greater Bay Area, the most populous built-up metropolitan area in the world, which extends into the neighboring cities of Foshan, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Shenzhen and part of Jiangmen, Huizhou, Zhuhai and Macau, forming the largest urban agglomeration on Earth with approximately 70 million residents^[12] and part of the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone. Administratively, the city holds subprovincial status^[13] and is one of China's nine National Central Cities.^[14] In the late 1990s and early 2000s, nationals of sub-Saharan Africa who had initially settled in the Middle East and Southeast Asia moved in unprecedented numbers to Guangzhou in response to the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis.^[15] The domestic migrant population from other provinces of China in Guangzhou was 40% of the city's total population in 2008. Guangzhou has one of the most expensive real estate markets in China.^[16] As of the 2020 census, the registered population of the city's expansive administrative area was 18,676,605 individuals (up 47 percent from the previous census in 2010), of whom 16,492,590 lived in 9 urban districts (all but Conghua and Zengcheng).^[2] Due to worldwide travel restrictions at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, the major airport of Guangzhou, briefly became the world's busiest airport by passenger traffic in 2020.^[17] Guangzhou is the fifth most populous city by urban resident population in China after Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Chongqing.^[18]

In modern commerce, Guangzhou is best known for its annual Canton Fair, the oldest and largest trade fair in China.^[19] For three consecutive years (2013–2015), Forbes ranked Guangzhou as the best commercial city in mainland China.^[20] Guangzhou is highly ranked as an Alpha (global first-tier) city together with San Francisco and Stockholm.^[21] It is a major Asia-Pacific finance hub, ranking 21st globally in the 2020 Global Financial Centres Index.^[22] As an important international city, Guangzhou has hosted numerous international and national sporting events, the most notable being the 2010 Asian Games, the 2010 Asian Para Games, and the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup. The city hosts 65 foreign representatives, making it the major city hosting the third most foreign representatives in China, after Beijing and Shanghai.^[23][24] As of 2020, Guangzhou ranks 10th in the world and 5th in China—after Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Shenzhen—for the number of billionaire residents by the Hurun Global Rich List.^[25]

Guangzhou is a major Asia-Pacific research and development hub with a high level of scientific research output, ranking 8th globally and 4th in the Asia-Pacific,^[26] and is home to many of China's most prestigious universities, including Sun Yat-sen University, South China University of Technology, Jinan University, South China Normal University, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou University, Southern Medical University, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou Medical University, and Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine.^[27][28][29]

Portrait of the Grotto of the Five Immortals, the Taoist temple around the five stones which gave Guangzhou its nickname "The City of Rams"

Guǎngzhōu is the official romanization of the Chinese name 广州. The name of the city is taken from the ancient Guǎng Prefecture after it had become the prefecture's seat of government. The character 廣 or 广 means 'broad' or 'expansive'.

Before acquiring its current name, the town was known as Panyu (Punyü; 番禺), a name still borne by one of Guangzhou's districts not far from the main city. The origin of the name is still uncertain, with 11 various explanations being offered,^[30] including that it may have referred to two local mountains.^[31][32] The city has also sometimes been known as Guangzhou Fu or Guangfu after its status as the capital of a prefecture. From this latter name, Guangzhou was known to medieval Persians such as Al-Masudi and Ibn Khordadbeh^[33] as Khanfu (خانفو).^[34] Under the Southern Han, the city was renamed Xingwang Fu (興王府).^[35][36]

The Chinese abbreviation for Guangzhou is 穗, pronounced Seoi⁶ in Cantonese and Suì in Mandarin—although the abbreviation on car license plates, as with the rest of the province, is 粤), after its nickname "City of Rice" (穗城. The city has long borne the nickname City of Rams (羊城) or City of the Five Rams (五羊城) from the five stones at the old Temple of the Five Immortals said to have been the sheep or goats ridden by the Taoist culture heroes credited with introducing rice cultivation to the area around the time of the city's foundation.^[37] The former name "City of the Immortals" (仙城/五仙城) came from the same story. The more recent City of Flowers (花城) is usually taken as a simple reference to the area's fine greenery.

The English name "Canton" derived from Portuguese Cidade de Cantão,^[38] a blend of dialectal pronunciations of "Guangdong"^[39][40] (e.g., Cantonese Gwong2-dung1). Although it originally and chiefly applied to the walled city, it was occasionally conflated with Guangdong by some authors. It was adopted as the Postal Map Romanization of Guangzhou, and remained the official name until its name change to "Guangzhou". As an adjective, it is still used in describing the people, language,