China Information
About China
People
Places
Travel
Business
Other Information
|
China Information » Places in China » Guangdong Province
Places in China: Guangdong Province
This province of China has a few strongly unique elements. For one thing, it is the most modern of China's provinces. For another, its history can be traced further back than most provinces, nearly 3000 years. A third unique feature about Guangdong is its language. The native language of the province is Cantonese rather than Mandarin as with most of the rest of the country.
The province was formerly referred to as Canton by the Europeans. Canton was a European derivation of Guangzhou, the capital of the province. The people of the province have cultivated their own cooking specialties as well as their own version of the Chinese language.
Guangdong is the most highly populated province in the country with a density rank of 618 people per square kilometre. Its 110 million residents occupy an area of 76,000 square miles. It is the fifteenth largest province in land area.
Located on the south coast, the weather in Guangdong is subtropical. Its long, hilly coastline faces the South China Sea. There are many islands off the coast of Guangdong including Hong Kong and Macao. One of the larger islands was formerly a part of Guangdong Province until it became the separate province of Hainan in 1988. Many of the smaller islands which are a part of Guangdon result from the convergence of three rivers in the province, the Dong Jiang, Guang Jiang and Bei Jiang.
The Pearl River is at the centre of the province and has been strongly influential in the economy and history of the region. A former port on the Pearl River, Guangzhou, brought much considerable trade and wealth to the province until Hong Kong and other ports took much of the trade in the latter 19th century.
Provinces which border on Guangdong include Hong Kong, Macao, Hunan, Jianxi, Hainan and Fujian. The Gunagzhuang Autonomous Region also is next to Guangdong.
The people of the province are 99 percent Han with Zhuang, Yao, Hui, She and Manchu making up the other one percent. One famous person in Chinese history was from Guangdong Province. Sun Yat-Sen, the founder of modern-day China was from here. He was the first president of republican China.
A few cities in the province make up a Special Economic Zone. Shenzhen, one of the leading cities in the province, is among that SEZ along with Shantou and Zhuhai. Because of reforms in the economics of communism, the output from this zone is twelve percent of the national output.
Travel from Guangdong is rather easy with its good roads, railway and airline facilities. Going to Hong Kong, for example, is a rather easy trip. The province also has many great sites within its own borders for enjoying natural beauty or learning the history of the region.
|
|
