A Histori Plae in Modern Guangdong China

Guangdong is the origin of the modern Chinese revolution and cradle of China's modern civilisation. It's most outstanding period in China's long history has occurred over the past one and a half centuries.

In the 19th century, the Qing government of China was weak and corrupt, and the country was on the brink of collapse. Guangdong, the trading port of China, had become the springboard for the invasions by Western powers. The burning of opium at Humen in 1839, and the Humen Battle and Sanyuanli Anti-British Struggle during the Opium War, were epic pages in Guangdong's history.

The special environment of culture and humanity made Guangdong a location where thoughts of reform could originate in modern China. Great men appeared one after another here: Hong Xiuquan, the leader of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Uprising; Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, famous reformers of the late Qing Dynasty; and Dr. Sun Yat-sen. The 1911 Revolution led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen overthrew the feudal monarchy and established the new republic. The 72 Martyrs Mausoleum at Huanghuagang in Guangzhou stands as the symbol of the 1911 Revolution.

In the 1920s, Guangdong became a political theatre of the Chinese Revolution. There are many well-preserved historical sites: the Huangpu Military Academy set up during the first cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communists; the Peasant Movement Institute directed by Mao Zedong; the ruins of the headquarters of the Northern Expedition; the site of the Guangzhou Commune and the Honghuagang Martyrs' Cemetery of the 1927 Guangzhou Uprising.

Besides its role in contemporary Chinese history, Guangdong was also an important part of the illustrious ancient Chinese civilisations. As early as in the 9th century B.C. during the Zhou Dynasty, people in this area, together with residents at the middle reaches of the Yangtse River, founded the Chu Court. The region became a part of the unified China in later dynasties, known as the Nanhai (South Sea) Province in the Qin Dynasty (221-207 B.C.) and the Nanyue (Southern Yue) State in the Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 24)

During the Tang Dynasty (618-907) it became an important trading harbour between the Central Plains of China and Arabian and Western countries. Guangzhou served as China's only foreign trade port before the Qing Dynasty 1644-1911