Welcome to Republic of Cantonia.The World Cannot Remain Silent!Please help us to promote the Cantonian people to the world for our struggle for human rights, liberty, democracy and freedom from China and Han Chinese racists.
我哋係大粵獨立建國理念嘅建構者！我哋堅定捍衛大粵民國（Republic of Cantonia）嘅國家主權！我哋係粵獨嘅先鋒！我哋將擊敗支那！我哋將終結嚟自支那嘅殖民統治！我哋將脫支獨立！我哋將鏟除所有試圖異質化大粵嘅支那文化毒瘤！我哋將恢復古南越3000年前久遠嘅傳統！我哋將喺大粵重新敲響得勝嘅銅鼓！
本論壇100%基於大粵民國（Republic of Cantonia）係主權獨立國家嘅立場！祇要妳唔係支那人，噉無論妳嚟自邊度，具邊國國籍，係邊種膚色，講邊種語言，妳祗要認同大粵民國（Republic of Cantonia）係主權獨立國家，噉我哋就係同一國嘅！歡迎妳註冊加入成為我哋嘅會員！為粵獨發聲！為大粵嘅獨立、自由、民主吶喊！
Guangzhou's Site Guangzhou is located at latitude 23 degrees 06'N and longitude 113 degrees 15'E. It sits astride the Tropic of Cancer, at roughly the same latitude as Honolulu and Mexico City. The average year-round temperature in Guangzhou is 22C; the hottest month is August, with an average temperature of 28C, and the coldest month is January, with an average temperature of 13C. The rainy season runs from April through August, and average annual rainfall is 172 cm. For current weather in Guangzhou, click here.
The subtropical climate allows for a year-round growing season in the agricultural areas. A wide range of fresh agricultural products, including fruit, vegetables, and flowers, is available year-round. The region grows 2-3 crops of rice per year.
At Litai waterfall in Panyu, flowers bloom year-round.
The pylon marking the Tropic of Cancer. The core city is basically flat. It is located between mountainous terrain to the north and the Pearl River to the west. Because of these constraints, the city has developed primarily south and east along the Pearl River, following the direction of water and land transportation. The land consists of terraces that are 20-30m. above sea level, which provide firm sites for urban and industrial development. Between the terraces is flat fertile lowland which provides a source of vegetables and farm products for the city.
Guangzhou is an ancient city. As early as 5000 BC, there were Neolithic sites in the area, and in the eighth century BC, migrants from the Yangtze River valley brought settled agriculture to the region. The city of Guangzhou proper dates back 2200 years. In 214 BC, the founder of the Qin Dynasty unified China, establishing Nanhai Prefecture with the city of Guangzhou as its walled seat. Far from the constant warfare of Northern China, Guangzhou attracted migrants and grew economically into China's unrivalled southern metropolis.
During the Han dynasty, Guangzhou developed into an important regional market centre and foreign trade port. It became the chief port on the "Silk Road of the Sea", trading silk, porcelain, and tea to Arab, Indian, and Southeast Asian merchants. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the imperial court's official policy of promoting maritime trade allowed Guangzhou to further develop its foreign connections. At this time, Guangzhou had a resident foreign population of approximately 10,000. During the Song Dynasty, road improvement also allowed greater access to China's interior.
In the late Song and Ming Dynasties, foreign trade declined due to upheaval in the Arab world and the rise of ports in neighboring Fujian Province,but with the establishment of Macau as a Portuguese colony in the 16th century, Guangzhou's situation once again improved. European traders in Southern China were restricted to Guangzhou, giving the city a virtual monopoly over foreign trade. However, economic relations with the outside world created tensions on both sides, culminating in the Anglo-Chinese Opium Wars. After a devastating loss to the British, China was forced to open up five treaty ports for foreign trade, including Guangzhou, and relinquish control over Hong Kong, resulting in more overt foreign influences.
Guangzhou continued to grow in the early 20th century and built an industrial base to supplement its trading function. In the 1920s and 1930s, the completion of the Guangzhou-Sanshui, Guangzhou-Kowloon, and Beijing-Guangzhou railways, as well as improved water transportation, reinforced Guangzhou's central position in Southern China. However, as the capital of Guangdong Province, a strategically vulnerable province near China's sensitive border with Vietnam, Guangzhou suffered neglect by the central government during the Maoist period.
With the ending of the Vietnam conflict and the rising prosperity of Southeast Asia, Guangzhou once again became a prominent target of economic growth. As one of China's first "open cities" under the post-Mao economic reforms, Guangzhou grew significantly, attracted Foreign Direct Investment, and developed a stronger industrial base.
The official area of the city of Guangzhou (Guangzhou shi) is extremely large. It includes eight urban districts (shiqu) and four counties. Of the eight shiqu, there are three old, densely populated districts located north of the Pearl River: Liwan, Yuexiu, and Dongshan; two newer urban districts to the south: Haizhu and Fangcun; one old suburban district to the north: Baiyun; and two newer suburban districts on the periphery: Tianhe and Huangpu. The four counties, Huaxian, Conghua, Panyu, and Zengcheng, are on the periphery of the urban area.
To learn more about each urban district, click on it on the map below.
Huangpu is located about 20 km. east of the central city; thus, it does not appear on the map.
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Transportation is a major issue in Guangzhou. The rapidly rising number of privately owned automobiles, bicycles, and motorcycles have resulted in severe traffic congestion. The move towards district specialization and the increasing distances between housing and the workplace have strained the existing transportation infrastructure, intended for a Maoist city built around work units. The older city districts have few roads wider than two lanes.
While Guangzhou has the highest ratio of mechanized vehicles to people of any city in China, it is on the low end in terms of per capita road coverage and total road length. Bicycles are preferred to public buses; less than 15% of the population takes public transportation. Guangzhou also has one of the highest motorcycle ownership rates in China. With all of the cars, bicycles, and motorcycles on a very limited amount of road space, traffic circulation in Guangzhou has ground to a halt.
During rush hour, this relatively empty Guangzhou street becomes a circulation nightmare. In addition, most of the privately owned cars on the road are more than 15 years old, often imports from countries that reported the cars as scrapped. Thus they are old, inefficient, polluting, and fuel-consuming. The lack of parking facilities leads to indiscriminate parking on sidewalks and roads, further blocking traffic.
A bicycle parking lot in central Guangzhou. Bicycles are the predominant form of transportation in Guangzhou, combining with private cars and motorcycles to gridlock urban streets. Guangzhou's rapid transition from an imperial to a socialist city left it with multiple problems and contradictions. While the population grew and the economy modernized, the government did not provide the infrastructure and services necessary to support these changes. A severe scarcity of housing persisted throughout the Maoist period, while land use continued to be mixed and illogical. Congestion plagued the central city as the number of automobiles and bicycles increased. In the post-Mao period, Guangzhou has attempted to deal with these issues through new housing construction and policy, land use planning, and transportation planning, but the persistent historic problems of housing, land use, and congestion are not easily solved.
Guangzhou's industry has a low degree of specialization relative to other large Chinese cities. In the 1990s, Guangzhou attempted to diversify its industrial base, adding export-oriented light industry such as clothing and leather goods to the heavy industries which had been emphasized in the 1980s. In addition, Guangzhou shifted its heavy industrial focus from machine-building, pharmaceuticals, and metallurgy to transport equipment, chemicals, and building materials.
A chemical factory in Guangzhou. Light industry now accounts for about half of Guangzhou's jobs. The nearby Pearl River Delta region provides agricultural products and a vast labour supply that has helped to build the area's industrial base. Primary light industries in Guangzhou include textiles, food processing, consumer electronics, household durables, bicycles, and motorcycles. In addition, Guangzhou has begun exploiting backwards linkages to heavier supporting industries, including metallurgy and petrochemicals. Guangzhou's light industry is typically labour-intensive with low skill requirements. It also emphasizes design and product diversity,which suggests that it is following Hong Kong's lead in export-oriented industry. Indeed, many of Guangzhou's industries are intimately tied to Hong Kong ventures, and the region is becoming more and more economically integrated.
Guangzhou's industrial success is primarily due to Foreign Direct Investment, which came into the region with the Open Door Policy of the late 1970s. The creation of Economic and Technological Development Zones has facilitated the industrialization of Guangzhou and helped to attract foreign capital, as well as attempting to give focus to the rapid industrial growth that has occurred over the past 20 years.
Guangzhou is the television, broadcast, and news center of Guangdong Province. It has five television stations, 8 radio stations, and 3 major daily newspapers. In 1996, 1.658 billion newspapers, 196 magazines, and 403 million books were published in Guangzhou.
Mass media in China used to depend almost exclusively on government funding. Its purpose was to "uplift" the common people, and it was used to educate citizens and support Party policies. However, since the 1978 economic reforms, mass media organizations have been required to generate most of their own funding. This is done primarily through advertising, leading to increased competition among stations for larger audience shares. As a result of competition, programming has become much more diverse in its attempts to attract and entertain as well as inform. Increasingly, programs are being brought in from abroad: Cantonese programs are purchased from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, while foreign language programs come primarily from the United States, Japan, and Great Britain.
Guangzhou's proximity to Hong Kong has also influenced its popular culture. Guangzhou broadcasters have always faced competition from Hong Kong stations, which can be brought in with a special antenna or cable subscription. Prior to Hong Kong's handover in 1997, the Chinese government was extremely wary of Hong Kong programming, especially news, because it portrayed a different view of the world and of China itself. The government would occasionally jam signals from Hong Kong stations if they portrayed China negatively.
Traditionally, the content of Chinese programming has been heavily influenced by Party policy and by considerations of "suitability." Although Party control over the media is waning, Guangzhou television stations still get much of their news coverage from China Central Television, and even stations that produce their own news coverage support the Party's view of the country. Typically, Guangzhou news includes more economic coverage and less crime reporting than local American stations, and is almost unwaveringly optimistic about conditions in the country.
As the mass media in Guangzhou liberalizes, the influence of Western ideas becomes stronger and stronger. The availability of Satellite Television Asian Region, better known as Star TV, has exposed Guangzhou viewers to foreign news, MTV, and virtually uncensored foreign movies and programming. Guangzhou is opening up culturally as well as economically, and the results are evident. This recent exerpt from a Guangzhou newspaper demonstrates just how much things have changed in the last few decades:
HAVE you ever wondered just what it is that compels otherwise perfectly sane young men and women to go out and have their tongues pierced, or their eyebrows, or navels, or certain other body parts better left unspecified in a family newspaper?
Or why teenagers continue to get addicted to smoking when it has been clear for more than a quarter of a century that cigarettes are killers? Sociologists or psychoanalysts might give you any number of answers to such questions, but if you ask the kids themselves you are likely to get a single straight-forward answer. You know what it is: Because it is cool.
The same news source includes flirting advice from a British expert, "secrets of the super-young" (according to the article, they have "very active sex lives"), and a tribute to Marilyn Monroe. To see it for yourself, click here.
Consumerism is undeniably on the rise in Guangzhou. Guangzhou is very much a city in transition. Caught between socialist ideology and rapid capitalist development, it is being forced to deal with newly arising economic, ideological and structural contradictions. The change that the city is experiencing provides it with both challenges and opportunities. As Guangzhou adopts new functional roles and adapts to new demands, problems of inadequate infrastructure and poor service provision become even more evident; however, this provides an excellent chance for the city to improve its organization and economic efficiency. The process of privatization is likely to continue, as is the emphasis on attracting capital investment. These strategies have been successful so far in increasing the city's prosperity and strengthening its industrial base. However, the increasing disparity of income between different segments of the population in Guangzhou is beginning to create resentment and dissatisfaction, both on an ideological and a personal level. Some politicians worry that this disparity has the potential to create social unrest.
Another challenge in Guangzhou's future is the influx of migrants from the north. Although migration into cities is tightly controlled in China, a "floating population" of temporary migrants has descended on Guangzhou. The already overcrowded transportation and housing in the central city is further strained by these rural migrants, and the stream of illegal migration shows no signs of slowing down.
Physically, Guangzhou is in transition from a compact, low-rise city to a decentralized, sprawling, high-rise metropolis. Redevelopment projects in the central city are bulldozing old residential areas and replacing them with primarily high-rise developments. While this redevelopment is improving service provision and eliminating some of the most poorly maintained housing, many Guangzhou residents have difficulty adjusting to new homes in high-rise complexes. Guangzhou's skyline is changing due to the recent emphasis on high-rise construction. Guangzhou is also becoming more socially liberal. The decentralization of power in China and the reduced role of the state in economics are construed by some as a prelude to democratization. Regardless of whether or not this is true, increasing foreign influence has changed the attitudes of many Guangzhou citizens. The current moral atmosphere in Guangzhou has been described as a "free-for-all," creating some disillusionment with prosperity and liberalization.
Guangzhou will continue to grow in population and economic influence. However, in the future it may face competition from other Southern Chinese cities that are rapidly approaching Guangzhou's level of industrialization.
Gaubatz, Piper. "China's Urban Transformation: Patterns and Processes of Morphological Change in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou." Urban Studies 36 (1999): 1495-1521.
Ikels, Charlotte. The Return of the God of Wealth: The Transition to a Market Economy in Urban China. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1996.
Wu, Fulong. "Urban Spatial Structure in a Transitional Economy: the case of Guangzhou, China." Journal of the American Planning Association 65 (1999): 377.
Xuequiang, Xu. "Guangzhou: China's Southern Gateway." Chinese Cities: The Growth of the Metropolis Since 1949. Ed. Victor F.S. Sit. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1985. 167-187.
Yeung, Yue-man, Yu-you Deng, and Han-xin Chen. "Guangzhou: The Southern Metropolis in Transformation." China's Coastal Cities: Catalysts for Modernization. Ed. Yue-man Yeung and Xu-wei Hu. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1992. 240-263.
Yusuf, Shahid and Weiping Wu. The Dynamics of Urban Growth in Three Chinese Cities. New York: Oxford UP, 1997.
Foreign Trade Guangzhou has the longest history of foreign trade of any city in China. As the former terminal port of the "Silk Road of the Sea", then a treaty port, and now one of fourteen designated "open cities", Guangzhou has always encouraged foreigners to come to trade. The Chinese Export Commodities Fair (also known as the Canton Trade Fair), held twice yearly since 1956, was until 1978 the only channel for Chinese trade with the outside. Factories from all over China came to exhibit their products to foreign buyers. Since the advent of China's 1978 "open policy", many more fairs and exhibitions have begun in Guangzhou as well as other open cities.
The site of the Chinese Export Commodities Fair. The 1984 "open cities" policy designated fourteen coastal cities as catalysts for Chinese economic development. Intended to attract foreign investment and generate wealth for the country, they have been given special latitude and privileges. These include flexibility in economic policymaking; the right to create Economic and Technological Development Zones, which provide foreign investors with generous breaks on corporate profit taxes and import/export duties; administrative status at the provincial level, allowing greater autonomy; and the power to offer preferential treatment to overseas investors. Since 1984, 30 different countries and regions have invested in Guangzhou, creating 8295 registered capital foreign enterprises as of 1997. Joint ventures and foreign-owned enterprises jumped from 1.9% to 23% of the total value of industrial goods and services between 1985 and 1991. Most of this investment came from Hong Kong entrepreneurs, who preferred to invest in Guangzhou because of its proximity and common language; also, many Hong Kong investors have relatives in Guangzhou. Guangzhou's designation as an open city has facilitated its economic growth and increased its wealth tremendously.
Guangzhou's history of contact with the outside allowed opportunities for local citizens to go abroad. Through connections with foreign traders and Christian missionaries, Cantonese were present in North America decades before the California Gold Rush. However, many more Cantonese did come with the Gold Rush, and they came disproportionately from the coastal counties, where the agricultural sector could not employ all of the workers. Men who came to work in North America sent remittances back to their families, who became wealthy. To avoid resentment in their native villages, these men often relocated their families to Guangzhou, the primate Cantonese city.
After the Communist Revolution, there was a lot of uncertainty concerning the status of overseas Chinese. Because of their foreign connections, overseas Chinese were suspected of disloyalty to the new regime and became afraid to return. After this initial period of uncertainty, the Chinese government encouraged overseas Chinese to come back by providing luxury housing and other privileges. However, many overseas Chinese sought exit visas for their families and failed to return to Guangzhou.
Today, overseas Chinese tracing roots back to Guangzhou are living in 116 different countries. More overseas Chinese come from Guangzhou than any other city in China, and 1.35 million people in Guangzhou, over one-sixth of the city's population, have relatives living abroad.
The apparently illogical and severely mixed land use in Guangzhou has become a serious source of concern. The Maoist policy of organizing the city into work-unit compounds resulted in a high concentration of factories and industry in the central city, near residential areas, schools, and temples. These factories produce pollution, noise, and congestion that lower the quality of life for nearby residents. Also, the predominance of industrial land in the central city means that an insufficient amount of land has been allotted to other functions, including housing, hospitals, and commerce in particular. With economic development has come increased commercial activity, but much of the land is still tied up in centrally located factories. In addition, the land that is available is being underutilized. Only recently have high-rises become commonplace; the developments built under socialism were typically low-rise. Also, over 15% of urban land sits empty because central and provincial agencies traditionally claimed more land than they really needed.
A new high-rise residential cluster in Tianhe district on Guangzhou's periphery. Newly constructed luxury housing on the city's periphery. Guangzhou is surrounded by villa developments. In the post-Mao period, planners have worked to create specialized districts. Some of these districts are being built from scratch in the suburbs, while others involve redevelopment of urban land. Over three-quarters of the new construction is occurring in the suburbs, both because of space constraints in the central city and because of planners' preference for decentralized organized clusters. One of the most prominent examples of suburban specialization is the targeted industrial development zones. Five such zones have been planned: currently one, Guangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone, is fully operational, another, in Tianhe, was opened in 1995, and the other three are in earlier stages of development. These zones provide infrastructure for industrial clients and hope to attract foreign investment. Much of the remaining suburban development consists of high-rise housing clusters and supporting commercial space, or relocated central city factories. However, there have been problems in relocating factories from the city center to the periphery; the lack of water resources on the northwest side of the city has been an especially worrisome barrier.
Located at the confluence of three rivers on the extensive Pearl River system, Guangzhou is a prime location for a port. Guangzhou harbor in Huangpu district is the third largest seaport in the country and has the capacity to handle containers; in 1993, the port handled 65 million tons of goods. It is currently being improved and expanded to handle a higher volume of international marine traffic. This includes dredging the mouth of the harbour, adding cargo handling capacity, and building an entirely new port zone to raise the handling volume by 40 percent.
The Pearl River system connects Guangzhou to Hong Kong and the South China Sea, while the Pearl River and the West River, a tributary of the Pearl River, provide important transport routes into the interior. For specific information on Guangzhou's port and cargo handling facilities, click here.
For decades Guangzhou has experienced a severe housing shortage. When Mao came into office, civil unrest and poverty had left many urban residents homeless or poorly housed. Single family and non-residential structures (such as temples) were converted to housing for these people, and while this policy succeeded in housing the needy, it also caused overcrowding and poor infrastructure in the urban districts. Under the Maoist government, housing was provided by work units. Rent was pegged at artificially low levels, resulting in a low standard of repairs. There was little new housing construction, intensifying the housing shortage.
Dilapidated and poorly serviced housing in Yuexiu district. The post-Mao government has tried to address the scarcity and poor quality of housing through new housing construction and more capitalist policies. An investment in housing construction since the late 1980s has eased the situation somewhat; however, an influx of migrant workers has created new problems. The new construction consists mainly of mid- to high-rise, high density apartment buildings, as well as low-density luxury housing in suburban "villa" developments. In addition to the new construction, the government is also pursuing redevelopment in the central cities, which generally involves demolishing existing structures and rebuilding. Some projects rehouse residents on site, while others relocate them to high-rise developments in the periphery. In the redevelopment process, there are conflicts between historic preservationists and commercial interests. The government also sought to increase private ownership of housing and delink housing from the work units. Although land is not for sale in China, buildings and long-term leases have become commodities, effectively allowing for private ownership. Guangzhou records the highest level of individual home purchases of any city in China (although the housing market is skewed by the purchase of housing by Hong Kong residents). However, home-ownership is still financially impossible for most Guangzhou residents, and much of the commodity housing is bought by work units and leased to employees at below-market rates, perpetuating the traditional patterns of housing provision.
Narrow streets inside a work-unit compound. Maoist planners assumed that residents would have little need to travel beyond walking distance from their homes. After the Communist Revolution in China, Mao's government was left with cities that had lost their former imperial glory. Once-sufficient streets had become inadequate, residential areas had deteriorated into slums, and once imposing monuments were crumbling. Mao's government took this opportunity to rebuild Chinese cities as models of socialist ideology and organization.
One of the strategies of the new planning was to decentralise urban areas by dividing them into self-sufficient communities based around places of employment. These work units were encouraged to provide health care, food distribution, and social services in addition to the required employment and housing. Ideally, this type of city would eliminate the need for specialized districts, and workers would rarely need to leave their communities. Thus, the Maoist city became structured around these low-rise work-unit compounds that were generally undifferentiated by function. This ultimately resulted in mixed-land-use, sprawling, decentralized cities composed of the accretion of individual, independent compounds.
Transportation planners in Guangzhou have focussed their efforts on increasing road capacity and improving the public transportation system. The city is working on construction of a ring road and several downtown expressways, and the bridge capacity over the Pearl River has more than doubled in the past 15 years. Planners promote wider, high-volume, grade-separated highways as the solution to Guangzhou's congestion problem. Also, overpasses have been built to relieve some of the worst traffic bottlenecks.
Planners assume that bicycle use will decrease and public transportation use will increase as the system is improved. Guangzhou has one of the better bus systems in China, with a choice of air-conditioned or non-air-conditioned buses, express services, minivans, taxis, and motorcycle taxis. However, its subway system lags far behind that of many cities: its first subway line was begun in 1993 and opened at the end of 1998, running from Tianhe to Liwan district. Construction is now underway on the city's first light-rail line, from Tianhe to Huangpu district. While the city has been working hard to solve the problem of traffic congestion, construction on roads and public transportation lags far behind the demand.
Guangzhou recently completed the first line of its high-profile subway system. For a map of the completed line, click here. Below is the map of the proposed route for all seven lines:
The completed subway system is expected to drastically reduce congestion on the roads in the central city by making public transportation more attractive to city residents. It will connect to the airport and major train stations as well as the industrial areas in Fangcun and Haizhu, the new development in Tianhe, and the dense residential districts of Yuexiu, Liwan, and Dongshan. However, it will not connect to the Guangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone in Huangpu, which can only be reached by one often congested road. Also, the completion of the first line only happened on schedule due to the city government's rule-bending and concessions, so it is difficult to say if and when all seven lines will be built.
These maps of Guangzhou's central city show major roads as well as railway lines. Note that many of these roads are narrower than they appear on the map; few have more than two lanes. The east railway station (in the center of the right side of the maps) connects with the subway. In the ten years since these maps were published, two new bridges have been added across the Pearl River and several new expressways have been built; however, even with these new construction projects, transportation is still a major problem in the city.
This general map of Guangzhou shows the major roads and highways in red, railway lines in black, and waterways in blue. Note the airport in the top central section:
As seen on the map, the area surrounding Guangzhou has a reasonably well-developed highway network. Several different rail lines run through Guangzhou, and the city is extremely well-connected to its surrounding area through an extensive network of waterways.
Guangzhou is a popular destination for foreign tourists. It is a major port of entry into China, and because of its location receives many tourists who also wish to visit Hong Kong, Macau, and/or nations in Southeast Asia. Guangzhou's tourist attractions include Baiyun Mountain, numerous tropical gardens, amusement parks, museums, and shopping. Guangzhou is also famous for its cuisine, which is widely believed to be the best in China. The Chinese saying, "for eating it's Guangzhou" is evidenced by the freshness and delicacy of Cantonese cuisine. Millions of foreign visitors as well as tourists from other parts of China visit Guangzhou each year, adding to the city's international ambiance and bringing much-desired foreign currency.
One of Yuexiu district's many commercial shopping streets clears out for the night. Yuexiu is the oldest urban district in Guangzhou, and also one of its key commercial districts. It is located inside the ancient city and contains many cultural artifacts. It is also the most densely populated district in Guangzhou, with a population density of 52,286 people per square kilometer.
Dongshan district is the political and cultural center of Guangdong Province, and contains the provincial headquarters of the Party, the administration, and the military. It is also a famous overseas Chinese residential area, and many relatives of overseas Chinese who live in the area have strong ties to the outside world. Dongshan has the most green space of all the urban districts.
Liwan is one of the oldest districts in Guangzhou. It is an important commercial area, and contains one of the most prominent shopping streets in Guangzhou. It is also the second most densely populated district, with a population density of 45,555 people per square kilometer. The district has suffered from environmental degradation, pollution, congestion, and low public health standards, and has the lowest life expectancy among the urban districts.
New development in Haizhu. Haizhu is an islet district surrounded by water. Traditionally agricultural and industrial, it has been undergoing rapid renewal and development over the the past several years. Planners have established a new shopping district and a 'tourism village' with hotels, entertainment, foreign consulates, apartments for foreigners, and luxury housing for overseas Chinese. There are also plans for two new light industrial areas.
New construction surrounding the large sports stadium in Tianhe. The Tianhe new district has been targeted by the Municipal Planning Bureau as the primary area for residential and commercial expansion. A new, modern sports stadium has provided a focus for development. The district has seen rapid construction over the past 15 years, going from a mainly agricultural area to a high density built environment. Both the new subway line and the new light rail line terminate in Tianhe, evidencing planners' intentions to continue rapid development in the area.
Fangcun is largely an old (1950s) industrial area, and is the main heavy industrial area of Guangzhou. Major industries include metallurgy and shipbuilding. Many of the relocated factories from the central city have been moved to Fangcun. The area has a rural hinterland and is known for its flower growing operations.
Both the main port and the Guangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone are located in Huangpu district. Thus it is a targeted site for economic growth. However, because Huangpu can only be reached by one congested road from the central city, it is difficult for Huangpu enterprises to recruit workers.
The Guangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone.
A China Xinjiang Airlines jet lands at Baiyun airport. Baiyun is the largest shiqu in area. Aside from the southern fringe, which is undergoing intensive development and has long been the site of Guangzhou's international airport, the district is sparsely populated. The northern section of the district is hilly and contains the highest elevations in Guangzhou. Historically a suburban district, Baiyun was incorporated as an urban district about 20 years ago.
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