Guangdong
This article deals with the Guangdong Province in southern China, and should not be confused with the former Kwantung Leased Territory in north-eastern China. (;
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 an obsolete
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.
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.
"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" (兩廣 liăng guăng).
The modern abbreviation 粵/粤 (Yue) is related to the
Hundred Yue (百越), a collective name for various peoples that lived in Guangdong and other areas in ancient times.
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 (百越), who may have been
Tai-Kadai and related to the
Zhuang people in modern
Guangxi.
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 (南海郡) at
Panyu (番禺), near what is now part of
Guangzhou. It once became 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 (交州). Under the
Wu Kingdom of the
Three Kingdoms, Guangdong was made its own province, the
Guang Province (廣州), in
226.
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[
1]. As more migrants arrived, the local population was gradually assimilated to Han Chinese culture [
2], or displaced.
Together with
Guangxi, Guangdong was made part of
Lingnan Circuit (嶺南"), or Mountain-South Circuit, in
627 during the
Tang Dynasty. The Guangdong part of Lingnan Circuit was renamed Guangnan East Circuit(廣南東路
guǎng nán
dōng lù) in
971 during the
Song Dynasty. "Guangnan East" is the source of "Guangdong".
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.
During the
Mongol Yuan Dynasty, Guangdong was a part of
Jiangxi. Its present name, "Guangdong Province" was given in early
Ming Dynasty.
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.
To this day, residents in
Chinatowns tend to be overwhelmingly from Guangdong and specifically
Taishan, so much so that Cantonese and Taishanese, the local dialect of
Taishan, spoken by less than 10% of Chinese people in China, remains the lingua franca of the overseas Chinese communities.
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.
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.
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.
Hainan island was originally part of Guangdong but it was separated as its own province in
1988.
Guangdong is believed to be the source of
SARS in
2003.
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 (南岭). The highest point in the province is about 1,600 meters above sea level.
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.
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.
This is a trend of
official estimates of the gross domestic product of the Province of Guangdong with figures in millions of Chinese Yuan.
| Year ¦¦ Gross Domestic Product |
|---|
| 1980 | 24,571 |
| 1985 | 55,305 |
| 1990 | 147,184 |
| 1995 | 538,172 |
| 2000 | 966,223 |
| 2005 | 2,170,128 |
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.
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.
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.
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 [
3]. Its per capita GDP reached 23,616 yuan (US$2,912), a rise of 84.7% from 2000 [
4]. Guangdong contributes approximately 12% of the total national economic output [
5]. 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.
Even though official statistics traditionally placed Guangdong as the 4th most populous province of China with about 80 million people, recently released information [
6] 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. [
7] [
8]
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.
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.
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.
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.
Relations with Hong Kong and Macao
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.
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: 粤菜; Traditional Chinese: 粵菜), 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: 粤剧; Traditional Chinese: 粵劇) is a form of
Chinese opera popular in Cantonese speaking areas.
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.
See also:
*
Music of Guangdong*
Hakka architectureColleges and universities
*
Foshan University (Guangzhou, Foshan)
*
Jinan University (Guangzhou, Zhuhai, Shenzhen)
*
Shantou University (Shantou)
*
South China University of Technology (Guangzhou)
*
Sun Yat-sen University (Guangzhou, Zhuhai)
*
Shenzhen University (Shenzhen)
Professional sports teams based in Guangdong include:
*
Chinese Basketball Association**
Guangdong Hongyuan Southern Tigers*
Chinese Football Association Jia League**
Guangzhou Rizhiquan*
Chinese Football Association Super League**
Shenzhen JianlibaoThere are abundant man-made scenes and natural beauties and scenic spots.
The current immediate administrative divisions of Guangdong consist of 21
prefecture-level cities:
*
Chaozhou (潮州)
*
Dongguan (东莞)
*
Foshan (佛山)
*
Guangzhou (广州)
*
Heyuan (河源)
*
Huizhou (惠州)
*
Jiangmen (江门)
*
Jieyang (揭阳)
*
Maoming (茂名)
*
Meizhou (梅州)
*
Qingyuan (清远)
*
Shantou (汕头)
*
Shanwei (汕尾)
*
Shaoguan (韶关)
*
Shenzhen sub-provincial city (深圳)
*
Yangjiang (阳江)
*
Yunfu (云浮)
*
Zhanjiang (湛江)
*
Zhaoqing (肇庆)
*
Zhongshan (中山)
*
Zhuhai (珠海)
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.
*
Governor of Guangdong*
The official website of Guangdong (in Chinese)
*
Large map of Guangdong*
Administration Districts of Guangdong*
Guangdong Statistical Yearbookzh-yue:廣東
