From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Guangzhou is the capital and the sub-provincial city of Guangdong Province in the southern part of the People's Republic of China. The city is also known by an older English-language name, Canton. It is a port on the Pearl River, navigable to the South China Sea, and is located about 120km north-west of Hong Kong. As of the 2000 census, the city has a population of 6 million, and a metropolitan population of 12.6 million,making it the most populous city in the province and the third most populous metropolitan area in China.

Name
The Chinese abbreviation of Guangzhou is Sui (穗; pinyin: sùi; Jyutping: seoi6; Yale: seuīh) or sometimes GZ. The city has the nicknames of Wuyangcheng (City of Five Rams), Yangcheng (City of Rams), Huacheng (City of Flowers), or Suicheng (City of Wheats). The city can also be referred to as the MuMianCheng (City of Ceiba).GuangzhouTraditional Chinese: 廣州Simplified Chinese: 广州MandarinHanyu Pinyin: Guǎngzhōu Wade-Giles: Kuang-chou[Listen] (help·info)CantoneseJyutping: Gwong2 zau1Min Nan Pe̍h-ōe-jī: kńg-chiuHakka romanization: [gong31 zu24]Postal map spelling: Canton
"Canton" was the convenient Portuguese or French romanisation of "Guangdong" Province.[citation needed] The city Guangzhou is the capital of the province and frequently referred as 廣東省城 ("the Canton Province Capital City") or simply 省城 ("the Province City") by Cantonese people. The city naturally represents the province and thus was erroneously used as the city's name. It may have been more convenient for Europeans who during the colonial period generally did not understand Chinese nor the written logographic characters (see exonym and endonym). When the term "Canton" is pronounced in Portuguese it provides a closer oral rendering of the name in its original Cantonese.[citation needed] Guangzhou is the pinyin romanisation of the Mandarin name for the city.

Administrative divisions
Guangzhou is a sub-provincial city. It has direct jurisdiction over ten districts and two county-level cities.
Districts
* Yuexiu District * Liwan District * Haizhu District * Tianhe District * Baiyun District * Huangpu District * Huadu District * Panyu District * Nansha District * Luogang District
County-level cities
* Zengcheng City * Conghua City
As of April 28, 2005, the districts of Dongshan and Fangcun have been abolished and merged into Yuexiu and Liwan respectively; at the same time the district of Nansha is established out of parts of Panyu, and the district of Luogang is established out of parts of Baiyun, Tianhe, Huangpu, and Zengcheng.