'''Guangdong''' (__? Gu?ngd?ng) is a province in South East China on the border with Hong Kong.

In the era of tea clippers, both Guangdong and its capital Guangzhou were referred to in English as "Canton". We still call the food and the language of the area "Cantonese".

Understand

Guangdong faces the South China Sea and surrounds Hong Kong. Long a provincial backwater, the province's economic fortunes changed dramatically when Deng Xiaoping instigated his reforms in 1978. 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 the richest province in China. It is also the most populous Chinese province, with about 110 million people, more than all but 10 countries.

The major cities in Guangdong have been magnets for migrant workers from poor inland provinces since the 1980s. 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.

Many (perhaps even most?) overseas Chinese trace their roots to Guangdong, although many are from other coastal provinces such as Fujian or the area around Shanghai. The Chinese food most Westerners are familiar with is basically Cantonese cooking, albeit sometimes adapted for the customers' tastes.

Guangdong has a subtropical climate. Annual rainfall averages 1500-2000 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 and Autumn.

Regions

The Pearl River Delta is "the world's workshop", a major manufacturing area. Guangdong does a third of China's total exports and most of those are from the Delta.

Cities

  • Guangzhou - the capital of the province, largest city, economic and cultural center
  • Dongguan - center for the garment trade, between Guangzhou and Shenzhen
  • Kaiping - ancestral home of many overseas Chinese, has strange "castles"
  • Meizhou - near the border with Fujian, this is the "Hakka Homeland"
  • Shantou - on the coast North of Hong Kong, SEZ
  • Shaoguan - located in northern Guangdong
  • Shenzhen - boom town on border with Hong Kong, SEZ
  • Taishan - small and beautiful city, 140 kilometers west of Hong Kong
  • Xinjiao
  • Yangjiang - center for knives and scissors
  • Zhanjiang - in the West
  • Zhuhai - fast growing town on border with Macau, SEZ
  • Shenzhen. Zhuhai and Shantou are Special Economic Zones (SEZs) where various government programs encourage investment.

    Other destinations

  • '''Nan-hua Temple''' near the city of Shaoguan in northern Guangdong (three hours by train from Guangzhou). This beautiful temple was home to the sixth patriarch of Zen (ch:''Chan''), and is the location of his mummified remains. As such, the temple is an important pilgrimage site for practitioners of Zen Buddhism.
  • The Wikitravel itinerary A week near Hong Kong covers parts of Guangdong.
  • Guangzhou Outer City
  • These are the Tourists' Hot Spot when they visit Guangdong

  • Baiyun Hill in Guangzhou
  • Xiangjiang Wildlife Park in Guangzhou
  • Overseas Chinese Town in Shenzhen
  • Guanlan Golf Course in Shenzhen
  • Yuanming New Park in Zhuhai
  • Dr. Sun Yat-sen's birthplace in Zhongshan Star Lake in Zhaoqing
  • Mount Sijiao in Foshan
  • Mount Danxia in Shaoguan Qingxin Hot Springs in Qingyuan
  • Hailing Island's Dajiao Bay in Yangjiang
  • By visiting these destinations, tourist would gain knowledge about China's history and culture. Tourist could also experience the custom and culture differences.

    Talk

    Mandarin is widely spoken, almost universally by educated people, especially in areas like Shenzhen and Zhuhai which have had heavy immigration from all over China.

    The language of the area is Cantonese which differs from Mandarin as much as French differs from Italian or Spanish. Cantonese people are extremely proud of their language (this applies in Hong Kong as well) and 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 Tang Ren (People of the Tang) rather than Han, the standard appellation for ethnic Chinese. Note that there can be significant dialectal variations within Cantonese, and the Cantonese spoken in areas in the far Western reaches of Guangdong (eg. Taishan) are only marginally, or sometimes even not mutually intelligible with the Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong or Guangzhou.

    At the coastal areas near the border with Fujian, most notably Chaozhou and Shantou, a variant of Minnan known commonly as '''Teochew''' (the native pronunciation of Chaozhou) is spoken. Teochew is not mutually intelligible with Cantonese, but is still mutually intelligible with the Xiamen dialect of Minnan to a small extent.

    Certain parts of the province are also home to Hakka communities, and they speak the Hakka dialect, which is not mutually intelligible with Mandarin, Cantonese or Teochew.

    Get in

    There are several large modern airports in the region: Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macau have many international flights; Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shantou cater almost entirely for domestic Chinese flights.

    The area is also well connected to the rest of China by road and rail.

    Get around

    Railways:

    There are four railway companies in the province. Major rail lines running through Guangdong include Beijing to Kowlong, Beijing to Guangzhou, Guangzhou to Meixian, and Shantou and Sanshui to Maoming.

    Highways:

    A total of 1,689 km of highways at fourth-grade or above were constructed in 2003, of which new express highways accounted for 562 km and upgraded highways 333 km.

    Waterways:

    The province has more than 100 ports, including Huangpu, Zhanjiang, Shekou and Chiwan. Five quays were either built or extended in 2003, a year in which the volume of freight handled reached some 2.4 million tons.

    Do

    Eat

    Guangdong have a lot of restaurants that tourists could dine in. Other than restaurants, tourists could experience Chinese food and culture by going to the bustling markets at night. These markets are fill with shops and food carts that you could eat and shop at the same time on the street. These markets are usually very crowded at night and this attract a lot of tourists because they are experiencing the culture and the food.

    Drink

    Sleep

    Stay safe

    The major cities of Guangdong are heavily infested with pickpockets, and anyone who does not look Chinese is a prime target. For some info on defenses, see pickpockets.

    Sleep