Guangzhou (formerly Canton) is the capital and the political, economic, and cultural center of Guangdong Province. It is located in the southeast of Guangdong Province and in the north of the Pearl River Delta. Guangzhou is adjacent to Hong Kong and Macao, with railways and highways radiating in all directions, and the Guangzhou-Hong Kong trip only costs about one and a half hours in 2010.
Guangzhou is South China’s biggest national-and-foreign-oriented city with flourishing commerce, and China’s chief foreign trade center as well. It holds Canton Fair – the important trade fairs twice a year in Guangzhou. It’s also China’s famous historical and cultural city. The city with long summer and no winter is always green with flowers in bloom all the year round, hence reputed as “Flower City”. The 16th Asia Games will be held in Guangzhou in 2010 autumn.
China’s economy is huge and expanding rapidly. After the last 30 years of rapid developments, China emerges from a manufacturing base of low-end products to one of the economic powerhouses in the world. The rate of Chinese economic growth averages 8% growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per annum. The economy has grown more than 10 times during that period, with Chinese GDP reaching 3.42 trillion US dollars by 2007. In Purchasing Power Parity GDP, China already has the biggest economy after the United States. The insatiable demands on raw materials, composite materials, semi-finished and finished products for internal consumption in China have fuelled an economic boom in the Asia Pacific Region, not to mention her exorbitantly large share of exports.
The new Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport is one of the largest and best equipped airports in the Chinese mainland, offering door-to-door shuttles to downtown Guangzhou 24 hours a day.