Canton

Canton (Portuguese Cantão) and Guangzhou (pinyin: GuăngzhōuÉcouter pronunciation in Mandarin Chinese: 广州) is the capital of Guangdong Province in southern China. It has the administrative status of sub-provincial city in the People's Republic of China. With nearly 12.7 million (including 11.07 million urban residents over an area of ​​3843 km2) 2, is the third most populous city behind Shanghai and Beijing, and the first Southern China. With the cities of Shenzhen, Foshan, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and it forms the Chinese megalopolis River Delta Pearl conurbation stretching nearly 20 000 km2 and represents almost 40 million inhabitants. It hosted the 2010 Asian Games.


According to legend, the city of Canton is descended from heaven with goats Immortals, where Chinese circumlocution of "City of Five Rams" to designate rams that are actually goats.

Canton, or Guangzhou, was his debut called Panyu (Chinese: 番禺; Jyutping: Pun1 Jyu4), a name taken from the name of two mountains surrounding the present town, and Pan Yu His story begins with the conquest of the region. during the Qin Dynasty. Panyu began its expansion when the city became the capital of the Nanyue Kingdom (南越) in 206 BC. AD, the latter including at the time what is now Vietnam. The Han Dynasty annexed the Nanyue Kingdom in -111 and Panyu became a provincial capital of Guangdong. In 226 AD, Panyu became the seat of Guang Prefecture (广州; Guangzhou). Its name was changed to Guangzhou (廣州) in 226.

In the Tang Dynasty (618-907), Chinese society became international with the influx of fore

ign merchants which followed the restoration of Chinese control over the Silk Road, after the military conquest of Emperor Taizong (626- 649). Canton, like other major cities such as Chang'an and Luoyang, and many other market towns, welcomed foreign communities. Originating mainly from Central Asia in recent introduced new religions as well as other culinary, musical and artistic traditions. In the ninth century, the foreign population of the city of Canton was estimated at 100,000 people.

Arab and Persian pirates sacked Guangzhou (known to them as the Sin-Kalan) in 758, according to a report from the local government of 30 October 758, which corresponded to the day Gisi (癸巳) of the ninth lunar month in the first year of the era of Emperor Suzong Qianyuan Tang Dynasty. The tenth century to the twelfth century, there existed a district in Guangzhou foreigners, including people sheltering from the Persian Gulf from the sacking of the town of 758.


During the Japanese invasion, the city suffers from autumn 1937 violent strategic bombing of civilian targets, leading to a resolution of censure of the League of Nations against Japan. The imperial army are also implanted bacteriological research unit 8604, a subsidiary of Unit 731, where Japanese doctors practiced experiments on human guinea pigs.