Both population and GDP are still growing. In the era of tea clippers, both Guangdong and its capital Guangzhou were often referred to on maps and in spoken English as Canton. This usage continues today but to a much lesser extent with the transliterated Chinese name being used instead. Other versions no longer used include Kwangtung.
The food and language of the area are still known as Cantonese. The area that is now Guangdong was once inhabited by non-Chinese ethnic groups collectively known as the Baiyue. The Nanyue Kingdom had a Chinese king, but the majority of the population was Baiyue. Guangdong borders the South China Sea and surrounds Hong Kong and Macau , both of which were administered as part of the province before being colonised. Though far from Beijing and sometimes seen as a provincial backwater, Guangdong has always been an active center of industry and trade; it was a major terminus of the Maritime Silk Road and also important in the era of tea clippers.
It has also always been different from Northern China in some ways; there is a Guangdong saying that "The mountains are high and the Emperor is far away. The province's economy improved dramatically after Deng Xiaoping initiated economic reforms in Home to three of the country's Special Economic Zones marked "SEZ" below, see List of Chinese provinces and regions for an explanation and to a burgeoning manufacturing industry, Guangdong is now China's richest province and accounts for about a third of all of China's exports.
Many people from Hong Kong, as well as many overseas Chinese from Southeast Asia and Western countries have invested heavily in the province due to close family, cultural and linguistic ties.
The two main economic hubs of Shenzhen and Guangzhou saw their GDPs surpass that of Hong Kong in and respectively, marking important milestones in the economic development of the province.
The major cities in Guangdong have been magnets for migrant workers from poor inland provinces since the s. In many cities this has led to problems with petty crime and homelessness. It also means that Mandarin is increasingly widely spoken and many taxi drivers or service staff are more conversant in Mandarin than Cantonese. The Chinese food most familiar to Westerners is basically Cantonese cooking, albeit sometimes adapted for the customers' tastes. Guangdong has a subtropical climate.
Annual rainfall averages millimeters and temperature averages 19C - 26C. Summers are hot and wet and there may be typhoons. The best time to visit Guangdong is in the Spring or Autumn. Although Mandarin is widely spoken almost universally so by educated people, especially in areas like Shenzhen which have been built through migration from all across China , the historic and main language of the province is Cantonese.
Cantonese people are extremely proud and protective of their language this applies in Hong Kong as well and they all continue to use it widely despite efforts at Mandarinization. Cantonese itself is more closely related to the language of the great Tang Dynasty than the more modern circa Yuan Dynasty Mandarin. Cantonese people worldwide tend to refer to themselves as "Tong Yan" People of the Tang in Cantonese rather than Han, the standard appellation for ethnic Chinese.
Cantonese also has dialectal variations, and the varieties of Cantonese spoken in different cities have their own local quirks, though the Guangzhou dialect is taken to be the prestige dialect, and is understood throughout Cantonese-speaking areas. Some dialects are closely related but have low mutual intelligibility with standard Cantonese; perhaps the most notable one is Taishanese , spoken in Taishan , Kaiping and the surrounding areas. Another example is the Yangjiang dialect.
In the Chaoshan region, a language called Teochew the native pronunciation of Chaozhou is spoken. Teochew is not mutually intelligible with Cantonese or Mandarin, but is partially mutually intelligible with Minnan, which is spoken in neighbouring South Fujian and in Taiwan.
Shenzhen is well-known for its electronic industry while Dongguan, Zhuhai, Zhongshan, Shunde, etc have many factories making household appliances. Many transnational enterprises have set up branches or factories in these cities. Besides, a production base of grain, fruit and sugarcane has grown up around Pearl River Delta; a production base for tropical crops has been developed on Leizhou Peninsula.
Local Festivals and Events As well as the traditional Chinese festivals or activities like Spring Festival and Lantern Festival, this province has some characterized activities.
Pearl River Cruise has been a must for those visitors to Guangzhou, which provides picturesque scenery along the third longest river of the country. Canton Fair, held every April, 15 to 30 and October 15 to 30 attracts numbers of businessmen; next time, those attending may take a tour in or around the city to explore its true beauty. Guangzhou International Food Festival, which is held annually in October or November, is a famous tourist festival mainly about food, entertainment, trade and tourism.
Yangjiang Kite Festival held on Chongyang Festival 9th day of the 9th Chinese lunar month has attracted kite enthusiasts from both home and abroad every year. The Yangjiang kite, with a history of 1, years, is attractive in appearance, elaborate in structure and vivid in expression; it has also been the representative of Chinese southern kites. All in all, it is graceful and charming. What you need to do is explore and experience its many facets! Passport holders of 53 countries and regions can stay hours visa-free in Guangdong if they enter from Guangzhou Baiyun Airport , Shenzhen Bao'an Airport or Jieyang Chaoshan Airport and leave from any port in Guangdong for a third country.
Read details about Hour Visa-Free Transit. Answers App. Click to enlarge the above map Guangdong Facts:. Guangzhou City Sightseeing : 3 Days to local highlight attractions - Dr. Whilst there can I take a train to Yangshuo? Fresh live seafood is a specialty of Cantonese cuisine.
Seasonings are varied and well- coordinated. Sauces made from ingredients such as ginger, garlic, onion, vinegar, and sugar are paired up with different dishes to enhance their flavor. Somewhat lighter than most other Chinese regional cuisines, Cantonese dishes are prepared carefully and exquisitely. Quick-fried or stewed, they turn out to be fresh, crisp, tender, slippery but not salty with all flavors and tastes.
Another notable Cantonese specialty is slow-cooked soup. The soup is usually a clear broth prepared by simmering meat and other ingredients under low heat for several hours. Chinese herbs or medicines are often used as ingredients. Slow-cooked soup is a regular dish in Cantonese families as most believe in its ability to heal and strengthens one's health. Chen Fang is a retired government employee and a housewife in Guangzhou. It's a kind of food therapy that we practice in day-to-day situations.
Yum cha, or literally "drinking tea" is the term used to describe the entire dining experience. It is usually served in the mornings until noontime at Chinese restaurants and at specialty dim sum eateries where typical dishes are available throughout the day.
Zhao Gang is a tourist from northeast China. Cantonese cuisine is diversified and delicate. Cantonese dishes are my favorites among all the regional food varieties.
Cantonese food is one of my favorites too. It enjoys great prestige among the great varieties of Chinese cuisine. In China, though, it is certainly not everyone's first choice, but no one would say he dislikes Cantonese food with its well-balanced flavors that are never excessively sweet or greasy.
Among them, Guangzhou has already been listed among the first group of famous historical and cultural cities and Star Lake in Zhaoqing has come under state protection. A Land of fish and rice well-known in China, the City of Guangzhou has a history more than two thousand years. It is also an important trading port and has many scenic spots, historical sites and revolutionary monuments.
China's economic powerhouse Guangdong told to tighten belt - Xinhua. Fengkai Geopark - a tourist attraction in Guangdong. Hidden beauty of concrete jungle - Guangzhou is definitely not a city you will fall in love with at first sight. Every corner seems packed with high-rise buildings, elevated highways, overpasses, vehicles, and lots and lots of people - it feels like a city that is about to explode.
Your initial instinct could well be to get out as soon as possible. However, if you overcome this urge and stay longer, you will discover its more personable side. This 2,year-old port city, located on the Pearl River in Guangdong province, is home to 10 million people and is one of China's economic powerhouses. But the city's traditional neighborhoods, mostly in Xiguan area, still moves at a leisurely pace - with elderly folk sitting outdoors playing chess or just indulging in idle chatter; old stores, usually run by generations of the same family, tucked away in the back streets and selling a variety of medicinal herbs and dried seafood; and centuries-old banyan trees, with their numerous aerial roots looking like street sculptures.
A good way to explore what the city and its people are really like is to have a dim sum breakfast at a local restaurant. In this food-obsessed city, meals are a major source of happiness and determines the pulse of everyday life of the local Cantonese people.
Restaurants in Guangzhou are open for business as early as 6 am and the most popular ones are usually huge, covering several floors, serving about 1, people at a time, and full of noise and chaos. It would be wise to go with a local because the Guangdong dialect, called "bird language" thanks to its minimum nine tones, might fail most Mandarin speakers, let alone foreigners. As soon as you sit down, a pot of tea is promptly placed on your table. Soon, you will notice servers walking around with trolleys stacked high with bamboo canisters full of steaming hot food, like shrimp dumplings, turnip cake, chicken feet, rice noodle rolls and egg tarts.
Simply point at what you want as the carts pass by and the food will be delivered to your table right away. The portions are usually small, so you can sample a wide variety of dishes at one time. Of course, dim sum is not the only treat of the city's bustling food scene.
You can tuck into the city's best fish congee in a food stall with tiny tables and plastic tools, or the best barbecued goose and ribs in a humbly-decorated bistro located just around the corner from the big restaurants. Guangzhou is not only a paradise for foodies, but also a magnet for businessmen from all over the world.
The city's annual trade fair, launched in , is the oldest and one of the biggest in China. The city's trading history dates back to ancient times and recent archaeological finds suggest that the city may have had traded frequently with foreigners more than 2, years ago.
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