Guangzhou (Canton), a prosperous metropolis full of vigor, is the capital city of GuangdongProvince located along the south coastline of China. Being an excellent port on the Pearl River navigable to the South China Sea, and with fast accessibility to Hong Kong and Macau, Guangzhou serves as the political, economic, scientific, educational and cultural center in Guangdong area.Being the first cities benefited from China's Reform and Opening Up policy since 1978, Guangzhou acts as the pioneer of the economic development of the country, with thousands of large, small and medium-sized enterprises, which offer more job opportunities and make the city a heavily populated area. The city is especially prosperous in commerce, tourism, dining, finance and real estate. For travelers, Guangzhou shows much attraction through its famous sights such as the Five Ram Statue in YuexiuPark, Pearl River and WhiteCloudMountain. Guangzhou History. from googleearthIt is believed that the first city built at the site of Guangzhou was Panyu (蕃禺, later simplifed to 番禺; the locals pronounced this in Cantonese as Poon Yu) founded in 214 BC. The city has been continuously occupied since that time. Panyu was expanded when it became the capital of the Nanyue Kingdom (南越) in 206 BC.Recent archaeological founding of her palace suggests that the citymight have traded frequently with foreigners by the sea routes. The foreign trade continued through every following dynasty and the city remains a major international trading port to this day.The Han Dynasty annexed Nanyue in 111 BC, and Panyu became a provincial capital and remains so until this day. In 226 AD, the city became the seat of the Guang Prefecture (廣州; Guangzhou). Therefore, 'Guangzhou' was the name of the prefecture, not of the city. However, people grew accustomed to calling the city Guangzhou, instead of Panyu. Although the Chinese name of Guangzhou replaced Panyu as the name of the walled city, Panyu was still the name of the area surrounding the walled city until the end of Qing era.Arabs and Persians sacked Guangzhou (known to them as Sin-Kalan) in AD 758, 2 according to a local Guangzhou government report on October 30, 758, which corresponded to the day of Guisi (癸巳) of the ninth lunar month in the first year of the Qianyuan era of Emperor Suzong of the Tang Dynasty.[1][2][3]During the Northern Song Dynasty, a celebrated poet called Su Shi visited Guangzhou's BaozhuangyanTemple and wrote the inscription 'Liu Rong' (Six Banyan Trees) because of the six banyan trees he saw there. It has since been called the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees.The Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive to the city by sea, obtaining the monopoly for external trade with its harbour by 1511. They were later expelled from their settlements in Guangzhou (in Portuguese Canton or Cantao), but instead granted use of Macao (first occupied in 1511) as a trade base with the city in 1557. They would keep a near monopoly of foreign trade in the region until the arrival of the Dutch in the early XVII century.After China brought Taiwan under its control in 1683, the Qing government became open to encouraging foreign trade. Guangzhou quickly emerged as one of the most adaptable ports for negotiating commerce and before long, many foreign ships were going there to procure cargos. Portuguese in Macao, Spanish in Manila, and Armenians and Muslims from India were already actively trading in the port by the 1690s, when the French and English East India companies' ships began frequenting the port. Other companies were soon to follow: the Ostend General India Company in 1717; Dutch East India Company in 1729; the first Danish ship in 1731, which was followed by a Danish Asiatic Company ship in 1734; the Swedish East India Company in 1732; followed by an occasional Prussian and Trieste Company ship; the Americans in 1784; and the first ships from Australia in 1788. By themiddle of the 18th century, Guangzhou had emerged as one of the world's great trading ports, which was a distinction it maintained until the outbreak of the Opium War in 1839 and the opening of other ports in China in 1842.Guangzhou was one of the five Chinese treaty ports opened by the Treaty of Nanking (signed in 1842) at the end of the First Opium War between Britain and China. The other ports were Fuzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo, and Shanghai.In 1918, 'Guangzhou' became the official name of the city, when an urban council was established in it. Panyu became a county's name south of Guangzhou. In both 1930 and 1953, Guangzhou was promoted to the status of a Municipality, but each promotion was cancelled within the year.Japanese troops occupied Guangzhou from 1938-10-12 to 1945-09-16. Communist forces entered the city on October 14, 1949. Their urban renewal projects improved the lives of many residents. New housing on the shores of the Pearl River provided homes for the poor boat people. Reforms by Deng Xiaoping, who came to power in the late 1970s, led to rapid economic growth due to the city's close proximity to Hong Kong and access to the Pearl River.As labor costs increased in Hong Kong, manufacturers opened new plants in the cities of Guangdong including Guangzhou. As the largest city in one of China's wealthiest provinces, Guangzhou attracts farmers from the countryside looking for factory work. Cantonese links to overseas Chinese and beneficial tax reforms of the 1990s have aided the city's rapid growth.In 2000, Huadu and Panyu were merged into Guangzhou as districts, and Conghua and Zengcheng became county-level cities of Guangzhou.一、亚运会的主会场广州亚运会将使用70个场馆，设置的50个比赛场馆和20个训练场馆，形成了多中心、多功能的空间格局，即广东奥林匹克体育中心、天河体育中心、大学城、亚运城及花园酒店周边场馆等五大亚运场馆群，并辐射到广州市10个区2个县级市和佛山、东莞、汕尾3个分赛区城市。
