Canton was once China's only European gateway port
Guangzhou—English Canton—sits on the Pearl River about 120 kilometres from Hong Kong with more than twenty-two centuries of urban life. For long stretches it was the sole Chinese harbour open to Europeans, a Silk Road terminus that later anchored the seventy-million-person Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macau Greater Bay Area.
Founded as Panyu on the eastern bank in 214 BC under Qin push into Baiyue lands, it became Nanyue's capital under Zhao Tuo in 204 BC until Han armies took it in 111 BC. By AD 226 it headed Guang Prefecture, yielding today's name; the character means broad. Nicknames include City of Rams from five immortal stones and City of Flowers for greenery. Medieval Persians knew Khanfu; Portuguese Cidade de Cantão bequeathed Canton.
Tang-era records already track Middle Eastern shipping. On 30 October 758 raiders from Arab and Persian fleets stripped the harbour; Huang Chao’s 878 slaughter of roughly 200,000 foreign residents shut the port for half a century. Southern Han ruled from here 917–971. Ming sea bans choked private trade after Hongwu's turn, yet Portuguese contact from 1516 onward led—after conflict—to the 1554 Luso-Chinese Accord and Macau warehousing. Odoric of Pordenone likened its craft output to all Italy; Ibn Battuta watched shipyards in the fourteenth century.
The First Opium War ended Canton's monopoly; Hong Kong and Shanghai stole traffic, yet the port remained a major entrepôt. The 2020 census counted 18,676,605 in the administrative area, up 47 percent from 2010, with Guangzhou fifth among Chinese cities by urban residents. Forbes named it mainland China's best commercial city three years running (2013–2015); the Canton Fair is the nation's oldest and largest trade fair. It ranks as an Alpha global city, held the 2010 Asian Games, and hosts dozens of foreign missions behind only Beijing and Shanghai.
Source: Guangzhou
