Guangzhou Holidays

Guangzhou, once known to the Western world as Canton, is the capital of southern China’s Guangdong Province. The closest big city to Hong Kong, like Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a Special Economic Zone aided by foreign and Chinese investment.
A successful trading port, Guangzhou became part of the Maritime Silk Road that linked southern China with Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, and the east coast of Africa. Arab traders introduced Islam into Guangzhou in the 7th century, making it the site of China’s first mosque and founding a Muslim community that survives to the present day. Special foreign trading concessions were set up and Guangzhou went on to become 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 United Kingdom and China.

Equally, Cantonese culture has maintained strong distinctions from the rest of China not only in its cosmopolitanism and entrepreneurial spirit, but in its formidably complex dialect and world-famous cuisine.

Guangzhou itself also offers a swag of attractions including Shamian Island; the former foreign enclave, which remains a small village with grandiose colonial buildings, Chen Family Temple, the tomb of the King of Southern Yue, parks, gardens and markets. Qingping Market is perhaps one of the most fascinating food markets in China. Every imaginable foodstuff is sold at Qingping.