From Wikitravel

Guangdong (广东 Guǎngdōng) 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".

Contents 1 Understand 2 Regions 3 Cities 4 Other destinations 5 Talk 6 Get in 7 Get around 8 See 9 Do 10 Eat 11 Drink 12 Stay safe 13 Get out

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 if you want an explanation) and to a burgeoning manufacturing industry, Guangdong is now the richest province in China.

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 familar with is basically Cantonese cooking, albeit sometimes adapted for the customers' tastes.

Regions

Cities

• Chaozhou
• Chenghai
• Conghua — a hot spring resort 75kms north of Guangzhou
• Dongguan — center for the garment trade
• Foshan
• Guangzhou — the capital of the province
• Huizou
• Jiangmen
• Kaiping— ancestral home of many overseas Chinese, has strange buildings
• Nanhai
• Panyu
• Shantou — on the coast North of Hong Kong, SEZ
• Shaoguan — located in northern Guangdong
• Shenzhen — boom town on border with Hong Kong, SEZ
• Shunde
• Taishan — small and beautiful city, 140 kilometers west of Hong Kong
• Xinhui
• Xinjiao
• Yangjiang — center for knives and scissors
• Zhanjiang — in the West
• Zhaoqing
• Zhongshan — center for furniture trade
• Zhuhai — across the border from Macau, SEZ

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 practioners of Zen Buddhism.
• The Wikitravel itinerary A week near Hong Kong covers parts of Guangdong.

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.

Get in

There are five large modern airports in the region, three with many international flights — Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macau — and two that have almost entirely domestic Chinese flights — Shenzhen and Zhuhai.

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

Get around

See

Do

Eat

Drink

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.

Get out

This article is an outline and needs more content. It has a template, but there is not enough information present. Please plunge forward and help it grow!