Guangzhou is called as "City of Flowers", "City of Rams" and "Rice-ear City". It adjoins Hong Kong, Macao, with the Pearl River (the third great river in China) crossing the city , and has gifted geographical position advantage. The tourism resources in Guangzhou are so abundant that there are diversified tourism resources. Guangzhou is an important Top Tourism City in China.
Historical culture is the theme of Guangzhou tourism. Guangzhou city has been built for 2217 years. Such an old but flourishing and vigorous city is quite rare in present large cities in the world. Guangzhou once was the starting point of "maritime Silk Road" in ancient time. Relics such as Guangzhou Harbour, 13 Trade Houses and the South China Sea Temple, etc. have all witnessed the history of passing maritime trade of Eurasia for over 1,000 years. And this kind of trade connection has been lasting prosperously until today. Furthermore, Guangzhou is the revolutionary base in modern and contemporary history of China. If tourists want to travel in China, they could enjoy cultures of the Han and Tang dynasties in Xi'an, architectures of Ming and Qing dynasties in Beijing, but Chinese modern history in Guangzhou. Guangzhou is also the centre of the Lingnan (south of the Five Ridges of China) culture. There are many folk customs and local traits, among which Cantonese opera and buildings with Lingnan characteristics, etc. are all loved by visitors.
"Eating in Guangzhou" is a famous brand in Guangzhou tourism. Cantonese cuisine, one of the four major cuisines in China, is emerged and developed in Guangzhou. The catering trade is so large-scaled that there are all kinds of more than 30,000 restaurants. Here famous dishes and pastry of Chinese cuisines and delicious delicacies in different foreign countries could be enjoyed. Guangzhou has got the good reputation of "enjoying all the famous food of the world without going out of Guangzhou".
Natural sights, city scenes are the highlights of Guangzhou tourism. Beautiful Baiyun Mountain, green and lush Maofeng Mountain and peculiar radon hot spring in Conghua district, etc. have always been welcome by tourists for recreation. The beautiful Yuexiu Mountain recording Guangzhou's history has become a must which is also a good place to enjoy Guangzhou's cityscape. At night the Pearl River glistening and shining upon the bright-coloured lights on both sides seems extremely pleasant. She is opening her hospitable arms to meet friends from all parts of the world.
The vigorous city and shopping paradise are important content of Guangzhou tourism. With the city history of more than 2000 years, the maritime trade history of more than 1000 years, and concentrating China's modern history of more than 100 years, nowadays Guangzhou has become the foreland of China's reform and opening-to-the-outside-world policy and is leading the development process. At present, as Chinese urban comprehensive economic strength is concerned, Guangzhou ranks the third, close behind Shanghai and Beijing. Both per capita GDP and the per capita disposable income in Guangzhou rank the first in China. Guangzhou, with the nice environment for investment and business, is worthy of the name "shopping paradise".
With the implementation of the project "small changes in one year and medium changes in three years" costing more than 60 billion RMB in recent years, Guangzhou's economy, society and urban appearance have made a historical enormous change. Guangzhou has been honored the "International Garden City" Award in 2001 and "the Best Practice Honor to Improve Living Environment of the UN" Award in 2002.
Today in Guangzhou the environment is graceful. The economy is prosperous. The business opportunity is limitless. The unusually brilliant and charming city has become a regional internationalized tourist city with strong influence and also a city most suitable for residence, travel and development in China.
2. Guangzhou Striving to be Regional Internationalized Tourism City
Guangzhou tourism industry occupies a quite important position in development of China's tourism industry. Several major indexes have ranked in the front row of the main tourist city for many years, occupying a greater share in China's tourism economy. In the first half 2004, Guangzhou has received 38,776,200 tourists, up 32.84% in the same period compared with that of last year, and up 9.69% compared with the same period of 2002. Among them 597,300 are foreign tourists, up 65.93% compared with the same period of last year, and up 5.72% compared with the same period of 2002. The total tourism revenue is 22,390 million yuan, up 28.86% compared with the same period of last year, and up 1.24% compared with the same period of 2002.
In the way to the future development, Guangzhou will act according to the circumstances of "big industry, big market, big tourism". The integration of the tourism resources would be strengthened, so that the development and planning of tourism resources could be carried out high-standardly, and the competitive-products strategy could be implemented in an all-round way. The regional tourism cooperation would be strengthened, so that the whole image of Guangzhou tourism could be promoted, and the competitiveness of Guangzhou could be improved. Managing tourism in accordance with the law would be insisted on, so that tourism laws and regulations system could be perfected, and the standardized construction of tourism could be advanced actively. The outstanding achievement of Guangzhou as an excellent tourism city would be consolidated and developed, so that Guangzhou could strive for "China best (catering) tourism city". Based on a historical cultural city and with modern history as the theme, and setting off "eating in Guangzhou", the Lingnan folk custom, shopping paradise by contrast, this city would treat "Guangzhou one-day tour" and special tour in bordering area as the main products. In a word, the aim of Guangzhou tourism is to make Guangzhou a regional internationalized tourism city which plays an important function both at home and abroad and keep harmonious with city's development and ecology.
