Guangdong

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the asteroid see (2185) Guangdong . The province of Guangdong is not to be confused with the Chinese cultural region Guandong .

广东 省
Guǎngdōng Shěng

Abbreviation : 粤 ( Pinyin : Yuè)
Capital	Guangzhou
surface  - Total  - share in the PRC	Rank 15 out of 33 179,800 km² 1.94%
population  - Total 2015  - density	Rank 1 of 33 108,490,000 inhabitants 604 inhabitants / km²
Management type	province
governor	Ma Xingrui 马兴瑞
ISO-3166-2 code	CN-GD
District level	21 cities
District level	62 city districts, 34 districts, 20 cities, 3 autonomous districts
Community level	1128 large communities, 445 street districts, 7 nationality communities, 4 communities

Guangdong ( Chinese  廣東 省  /  广东 省 , Pinyin Guǎngdōng Shěng , Jyutping Gwong ² dung ¹ Saang ² ) is a province in the south of the People's Republic of China . Guangdong is the most populous province in China with 108.49 million inhabitants (as of 2015). Its name means far east and comes from the time when Guangdong was just settled by the Chinese and was still a vast, uninhabited area. The term canton , derived from this name, is used in the west for the capital Guangzhou , less often for the province itself. Other important cities in Guangdong are Shantou , Shenzhen , Foshan , Dongguan , Zhanjiang and Zhuhai . The short name for Guangdong is "Yue" ( 粵  /  粤 , Yuè , Jyutping Jyut ⁶ ).

geography

Guangdong lies on the coast of the South China Sea and is bordered to the north by the Nanling Mountains . At the western end is the Leizhou Peninsula , at the southern tip of which is the island of Hainan . The neighboring provinces are Fujian , Guangxi , Hainan (belonged to Guangdong until 1988), Hunan , Jiangxi and the special administrative regions Hong Kong and Macau . The latter cities are also part of the historical cultural area of ​​Guangdong, but the more recent administrative division is a direct result of colonialism.

The southern territory of the province is divided in its center by the Pearl River . Although it is only 177 km long, it is one of the most important shipping routes in China; it arises among others by three major rivers: In Guǎngzhōu goes West River (2197 km long), in the at Sanshui the North River (468 km long) opens in the Perlfuss over; south of Guangzhou the east river (523 km long) flows into the estuary . The huge alluvial plain that the Pearl River has formed around its mouth is an important agricultural region and a focal point of the economic boom in the last 20 years.

About a quarter of the surface shape of Guangdong is flat, especially in the coastal regions. Another quarter is gently rolling hills. The remaining half consists of mountains and plateaus, especially in the north. The highest point in the province is the Shikengkong on the border with Hunan at 1902 meters.

climate

Guangdong's climate is humid with tropical to subtropical temperatures. In the mountainous north there is an annual average temperature of 19 ° C, in the south of 23 ° C. The coldest month in Guangzhou is February with an average of 14 ° C, while the summer months have an average of 29 ° C. Precipitation is very unevenly distributed, in the north there are regions with less than 1200 mm of annual precipitation. The wettest regions, on the other hand, bring it to more than 2800 mm per year. Precipitation is also irregularly distributed over time. The winter months are relatively dry, but it hardly stops raining in spring ( plum rain , 梅雨 , méiyǔ , Jyutping mui ⁴ jyu ⁵ ). In summer there is a regular risk of typhoons ( 颱風  /  台风 , táifēng , Jyutping toi ⁴ fung ¹ ), with August and September being another two months with high levels of precipitation.

Administrative structure

The province is divided into 21 prefecture-level cities :

Chaozhou (潮州 市), Dongguan (东莞 市), Foshan (佛山 市), Guangzhou (广州 市), Heyuan (河源 市), Huizhou (惠州 市), Jiangmen (江门 市), Jieyang (揭阳 市), Maoming (茂名 市), Meizhou (梅州 市), Qingyuan (清远 市), Shantou (汕头 市), Shanwei (汕尾 市), Shaoguan (韶关 市), Shenzhen (深圳 市), Yangjiang (阳江 市), Yunfu (云浮 市), Zhanjiang (湛江 市), Zhaoqing (肇庆 市), Zhongshan (中山 市), Zhuhai (珠海 市)

As at the end of 2015, these cities were subdivided into 62 city ​​districts , 34 districts , 20 cities and 3 nationality communities and 4 municipalities .

In the following table, cities of high administrative importance are marked in bold.

Guangdong Administrative Map	Greater Region	#	region	Chin.	Hanyu pinyin	administrative seat	Area (km²)	Population (2010)
		- Immediate provincial administrative zone -
	Pearl River Delta	9	Guangzhou	广州 市	Guǎngzhōu Shì	Yuexiu	7,435	12,700,800
		21st	Shenzhen	深圳 市	Shēnzhèn Shì	Futian	2.007	10,357,938
		- District-free cities -
	North Guangdong	1	Qingyuan	清远 市	Qīngyuǎn Shì	Qingcheng	19,264	3,698,394
		2	Shaoguan	韶关 市	Sháoguān Shì	Zhenjiang	18,398	2,826,612
		3	Heyuan	河源 市	Héyuán Shì	Yuancheng	15,644	2,953,019
		4th	Meizhou	梅州 市	Méizhōu Shì	Meijiang	15,925	4,240,139
	East Guangdong	5	Chaozhou	潮州 市	Cháozhōu Shì	Xiangqiao	3,083	2,669,844
	Pearl River Delta	6th	Zhaoqing	肇庆 市	Zhàoqìng Shì	Duanzhou	15.007	3,918,085
	West Guangdong	7th	Yunfu	云浮 市	Yúnfú Shì	Yuncheng	7,762	2,360,128
	Pearl River Delta	8th	Foshan	佛山 市	Fóshān Shì	Chancheng	3,875	7,194,311
		10	Dongguan	东莞 市	Dōngguǎn Shì	Nancheng	2,512	8.220.237
		11	Huizhou	惠州 市	Hùizhōu Shì	Huicheng	11,158	4,597,002
	East Guangdong	12	Shanwei	汕尾 市	Shànwěi Shì	Cheng	4,957	2,935,717
		13	Jieyang	揭陽 市	Jiēyáng Shì	Rongcheng	5,269	5,877,025
		14th	Shantou	汕頭 市	Shàntóu Shì	Jinping	2.123	5,391,028
	West Guangdong	15th	Zhanjiang	湛江 市	Zhànjiāng Shì	Chikan	11,693	6,993,304
		16	Maoming	茂名 市	Màomíng Shì	Maonan	11,345	5,817,753
		17th	Yangjiang	阳江 市	Yángjiāng Shì	Jiangcheng	8.005	2,421,812
	Pearl River Delta	18th	Jiangmen	江門 市	Jiāngmén Shì	Pengjiang	9,553	4,448,871
		19th	Zhongshan	中山 市	Zhōngshān Shì	Dong	1,770	3,120,884
		20th	Zhuhai	珠海 市	Zhūhǎi Shì	Xiangzhou	1,696	1,560,229
Note: Officially, the Dongsha Islands are part of the administrative area of ​​Shanwei City. However , the islands are de facto controlled by the Republic of China (Taiwan) .

1. ^ National central city
2. ↑ Central city for north Guangdong
3. ↑ ^{a b} it is not an official administrative unit
4. ^ Central city for east Guangdong
5. ^ Central city for West Guangdong

history

Most of today's province, which initially belonged to the empire of the non-Chinese Nan-Yue , fell under Chinese rule for the first time during the Qin dynasty in the 3rd century BC.

After the fall of the Empire and the collapse of state power at the beginning of the 20th century, Guangdong was initially the stronghold of the Kuomintang and the center of their counter-government, but between 1929 and 1936 the warlord Chen Jitang ruled the area autonomously, while Wang Jingwei also formed a counter-government in Canton in 1931 before the national government was able to assert itself again in 1936. During the Second World War, the Japanese occupied the provincial capital and parts of the province, in 1945 the Kuomintang recaptured the province, but lost it to the communists in 1949.

population

Residential houses on the Pearl River in Guangzhou

Demographics

At the end of 2015, Guangdong had a resident population of 108.49 million people, which translates into a population density of 604 people per square kilometer. The population is made up of 56.7294 million men and 51.7606 million women, so that for every 100 women there are on average 109.6 men.

Guangdong is one of the most densely populated provinces in China. The population is growing rapidly, between 1990 and 2000 there was an increase of 36.7% and from 2000 to 2010 a further increase of 38.3%. The one-child policy also applied in Guangdong until it was abolished on January 1, 2016.

In 2015, the population grew by 1.25 million people, or 1.17%, with population growth accelerating by 0.42 percentage points. In 2013, the average life expectancy was 76.5 years, which is above the Chinese average. The birth rate in 2015 was 11.12 per thousand people (or 1.1995 million newborns), the death rate was 4.32 per thousand or 466,000 people. The natural population growth is thus 0.68%; the additional growth is due to immigration from other provinces. Due to the strong population growth, Guangdong overtook Henan Province as the most populous province in the 2010 census .

The population is very unevenly distributed across the province. At the end of 2015, 58.7427 million people or 54.15% of the province's total population lived in the Pearl River Delta . 17.2731 million (15.92% of the total population) lived in the eastern half of the province, 15.8335 million (15.34%) in the western half and 16.6407 million (14.59%) in the northern highlands. The population of the Pearl River Delta grew by 1.92% compared to the previous year, while it grew by almost 0.5% in the mountainous region and in the western part and decreased by 0.08% in the eastern part. The two megacities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen combined 92.02% of the population growth in the Pearl River Delta.

The working-age population (ages 15-64) at the end of 2015 was 80.4405 million people, or 74.15% of the total population. The proportion of people under 15 years of age was 17.37% (18.8467 million people), the proportion of people over 64 years of age was 8.48% or 9.2028 million people. This results in a youth quotient of 23.43 (increase compared to 2014 by 3.29 points) and an old age quotient of 11.44 (increase compared to 2014 by 0.61 points) or a dependency quotient of 34.87.

Ethnically, the population consists of 98.6% Han . On the other hand, almost all of China's national minorities are represented in Guangdong, especially the Zhuang , Miao , Yao , She , Li , Yi and Gin have been at home in the region for a long time, sometimes longer than the Han. Other groups, such as Hui or Manchurians , only immigrated later.

Population development

The following table shows the population development of the province since 1954. In 1988 the island of Hainan was split off from Guangdong as a separate province.

year	population
1954 census	34,770,059
1964 census	42,800,849
1982 census	59.299.220
1990 census	62.829.236
2000 census	85.225.007
2010 census	104.303.132
Guess 2016	109,990,000

Urbanization and cities

At the end of 2015, 74.5435 million people, or 68.71% of the population, lived in Guangdong's urban areas and 33.9465 million people (31.29%) lived in rural areas. Urbanization in the Pearl River Delta was 84.59% and thus 0.47 percentage points above the 2014 figure. In the east of the province it was 59.93% (increase of 0.38 percentage points), in the west it was 42.01% ( Increase of 0.98 percentage points) and in the mountainous region at 47.17% (increase of 0.8 percentage points). Overall, the urban population increased by 1.6203 million people or 2.22% in 2015.

Due to the relatively high level of urbanization, Guangdong already had 13 cities with a million inhabitants in 2010. The largest cities in the province with the actual urban settlement population as of the 2010 census are as follows:

rank	city	population	rank	city	population
1	Guangzhou (Canton)	10,641,408	8th	Jiangmen	1,480,023
2	Shenzhen	10,358,381	9	Zhuhai	1,369,538
3	Dongguan	7,271,322	10	Chaozhou	1,256,268
4th	Foshan	6,771,895	11	Jieyang	1,226,848
5	Shantou	3,644,017	12	Zhanjiang	1,038,762
6th	Zhongshan	2,740,994	13	Maoming	1,033,196
7th	Huizhou	1,807,858	14th	Qingyuan	916.453

language

Guangdong is the home of the Cantonese language ( 廣東話  /  广东话 , Guǎngdōnghuà , Jyutping Gwong ² dung ¹ waa ² ) or “Yue” ( 粵語  /  粤语 , Yuèyǔ , Jyutping Jyut ⁶ jyu ⁵ ). In the east, on the border with Fujian , dialects that can be assigned to the Min are spoken, especially Teochew in the prefecture-level cities of Chaozhou and Shantou ; the dialect of the Leizhou peninsula is also part of the Min. There are also Hakka in Guangdong who have their own language . Most of the people in Meizhou speak Hakka. Cantonese is also divided into several subdialects.

Due to the massive immigration from other provinces, Mandarin Chinese has established itself alongside the Cantonese language and is understood by almost all residents of the province and spoken by all people who have a certain level of education.

economy

Guangdong is the economically strongest province in the People's Republic. Since 1989, Guangdong has established its leading position in the national economy. Since 2001, their share in the GDP of the People's Republic has been more than eleven percent. Almost 70 percent of this added value goes into export. However, the province's role as an "extended workbench" led to numerous plant closings and relocation of companies in the ongoing process of structural change.

Calculated per capita, Guangdong is the fifth richest province in the People's Republic after Zhejiang , Jiangsu , Inner Mongolia and Fujian . The GDP per capita in 2015 was 72,787 yuan (about $ 10,958). The province experienced consistently high economic growth for around 25 years. The cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen are among the most active economic centers, the GDP of each of the two cities is behind that of Shanghai, but still ahead of Beijing or Tianjin.

history

Until the 1970s, Guangdong was neither a particularly poor nor particularly rich province. However, the residents of the area have a long tradition in (foreign) trade and are considered particularly business-minded within China.

When the economy became more liberal after Mao's death, Guangdong was the first province to unofficially experiment with market mechanisms. In 1980 , four special economic zones were introduced in China , including three in Guangdong, Shenzhen , Zhuhai and Shantou . Other cities in Guangdong were also the first to officially introduce markets where prices were not dictated by the state. Until 1988 the island of Hainan belonged to Guangdong, but was then made an independent province and the fifth and largest special economic zone of the country by the central government against the fierce resistance of Guangdong.

While many of the reforms that were first tried in Guangdong have now been introduced across China, the province is the furthest advanced on the way towards a capitalist market economy , also outside the special economic zones. The boom in which the province has been since then could not be slowed down by the SARS crisis, the center of which was in Guangdong. However, strikes and protests have increased since summer 2015 as a result of plant closures, bankruptcies and outstanding wage payments.

In May 1982, more than 430 people died in a flood in the province. Tens of thousands were left homeless.

Agriculture

Agriculture accounts for 2.5% of GDP and 40% of employment, both very low values ​​for China. About half of the usable area is cultivated with rice , another quarter with vegetables, the rest is used for growing fruits, sugar cane and peanuts . Peanuts are the most important oil crops in southern China; Guangdong is the country's leading producer of bananas , citrus fruits and mangoes .

Livestock is also important, with a total of more than 20 million pigs and more than four million cattle. Contrary to other reports, the breeding of dogs, cats or rats for consumption has negligible economic importance. In fishing, 94% of all freshwater and around 50% of all saltwater catches come from farms.

Mining

Guangdong has some offshore oil fields that are very important to China's crude oil production . The most visible mining activity for the stranger is the mining of rock for the booming building materials industry; they are in the process of blasting and dismantling entire mountains in order to gain rock for construction work.

Industry

Factory near Guangzhou

Industry generates about half of the province's GDP and employs 26% of the workforce. Guangdong is the province with the highest number of industrial companies, and the share of private companies is also highest in Guangdong, in 2000 only 17% of companies were state-owned (33% national average). The light industry dominates , which represents more than half of the total production value. This illustrates the importance of Guangdong as the backyard of Hong Kong and, to a lesser extent, Macau and Taiwan . Almost all of Hong Kong's industry has moved to Guangdong since the 1980s.

The most important products are textiles, paper, building materials, food, electronics (especially smartphones) and household appliances. The vehicle industry also experienced a major surge in growth. With ten percent of the total production of all provinces in China, the energy suppliers bring the highest share of electricity to the market; this is usually done with thermal power plants.

Services and tourism

About 49.1% of GDP is earned from services. The most important industries are transportation, telecommunications and post, and increasingly financial services. Tourism also plays an important role; Guangdong has the highest number of tourists and the highest income, without having any special sights. This illustrates the role of day tourists from Hong Kong and the role of foreign business people, who mostly declare themselves as tourists for bureaucratic reasons.

Foreign trade

No other province imports and exports as much as Guangdong. The special economic zones in particular were originally set up with the aim of producing cheaply for export and thereby providing the entire economy with urgently needed foreign currency. In Guangdong, for example, production is carried out for the American and European markets, and the raw materials for this are often imported from the target markets. About 30% of the people's republic's exports come from Guangdong. The Guangzhou Import and Export Goods Fair is the largest in the country. It takes place in April and September every year.

Infrastructure

In Guangdong, the road network is of paramount importance for transportation. No other province in China has as high a density of highways and first-class highways as Guangdong; Enormous sums of money continue to be invested in the road network. There are around 13,700 kilometers of navigable waterways.

The railway network, however, is very thin; however, the existing routes are used very heavily. The most important lines are the north-south connection ( Beijing - Guangzhou railway / Beijing - Canton railway, which continues to Shenzhen and Hong Kong ) and the west-east connection, here especially the Guangzhou- Shantou railway and the line from Guangzhou to Nanning . The line between Guangzhou and Shenzhen is one of the most modern railway lines in China.

The overseas ports of Guangzhou, Zhanjiang , Shantou and Shenzhen are among the most important in the country; Guangzhou in particular is the third largest port in China and the fast-growing port of Shenzhen is increasingly competing with the Hong Kong port.

The density of international airports in the Pearl River Delta is immense; With Guangzhou , Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macau there are four airports within a radius of around 200 kilometers. Other notable airports are in Shantou , Meizhou and Zhanjiang .

Telecommunication coverage is almost nowhere in China as advanced as in Guangdong; IDD telephones can easily be found in remote areas and almost the entire territory of the province is covered by the cellular network.

education

Sun Yat-sen University

Despite the high level of immigration from much poorer areas, especially from a rural population, the illiteracy rate is very low at less than four percent. Guangdong has a large number of universities. The Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou is ranked among the top ten universities in the country.

Web links

Commons : Guangdong  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Guangdong Province

Footnotes

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} 罗健波 (Luo Jianbo): 人口 语言. In: 广东 年鉴.广东 年鉴 编纂 委员会, 2016, accessed February 19, 2018 (Chinese). 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} 何 锋 军 (He Fengjun): 行政 区划. In: 广东 年鉴.广东 年鉴 编纂 委员会, 2016, accessed February 19, 2018 (Chinese). 
3. ↑ 印发 粤北 地区 经济 社会 发展 规划 纲要 （2011— 2015 年） 的 通知 (“Announcement on the Draft and Distribution of the Economic and Social Development Plan in North Guangdong Region 2011-2015”).广东 省政府 网 (Guangdong Provincial Government website), zwgk.gd.gov.cn, accessed August 21, 2018 (Chinese (simplified)). 
4. ↑ 印发 粤东 地区 经济 社会 发展 规划 纲要 （2011— 2015 年） 的 通知 (“Notice of Draft and Distribution of the Plan for Economic and Social Development in East Guangdong Region 2011-2015”).广东 省政府 网 (Guangdong Provincial Government website), zwgk.gd.gov.cn, accessed August 21, 2018 (Chinese (simplified)). 
5. ↑ 印发 粤西 地区 经济 社会 发展 规划 纲要 （2011— 2015 年） 的 通知 (“Announcement on the Draft and Distribution of the Economic and Social Development Plan for West Guangdong Region (2011-2015)”).广东 省政府 网 (Guangdong Provincial Government website), zwgk.gd.gov.cn, accessed August 21, 2018 (Chinese (simplified)). 
6. ↑ 中国 统计 年鉴 -2013 (“Statistical Yearbook for China 2013”). Retrieved May 6, 2018 (Chinese (simplified)). 
7. ↑ Willy Lam: 2010 Census Exposes Fault Lines in China's Demographic Shifts . Ed .: Jamestown Foundation. China letter 11, no. 8 , May 6, 2011 (English, online [accessed July 18, 2019]).
8. ↑ ^{a b} Guangdong (China): Province, Cities & Counties - Population Statistics, Maps, Graphics, Weather and Web Information. Retrieved December 11, 2017 . 
9. ↑ http://www.chinaknowledge.com/Business/Provincedetails.aspx?subchap=7&content=37
10. ↑ M. Müller: In China, nervousness is increasing. NZZ, international edition, December 9, 2015, p. 7.
11. ↑ ^{a b c d} Guangdong Economic and Social Development 2009. Guangdong Statistical Office, archived from the original on August 10, 2011 ; Retrieved April 19, 2010 . 

Coordinates: 23 ° 34 '  N , 113 ° 57'  E