175-619: Shenzhen is a city in Guangdong , China. A special economic zone , it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong, bordering Hong Kong to the south, Dongguan to the north, Huizhou to the northeast, and Macau to the southwest. With a population of 17.5 million in 2020, Shenzhen is the third most populous city by urban population in China after Shanghai and Beijing . The Port of Shenzhen
350-443: A Chinese megalopolis , is a core for high technology , manufacturing and foreign trade . In this zone are two of the four top Chinese cities and the top two Chinese prefecture-level cities by GDP : Guangzhou and Shenzhen , the first special economic zone in the country. These two are among China's most populous and important cities, and have become two of the world's most populous megacities and leading financial centres in
525-469: A nucleus that has a vowel (which can be a monophthong , diphthong , or even a triphthong in certain varieties), preceded by an onset (a single consonant , or consonant + glide ; a zero onset is also possible), and followed (optionally) by a coda consonant; a syllable also carries a tone . There are some instances where a vowel is not used as a nucleus. An example of this is in Cantonese, where
700-457: A subject–verb–object word order , and like many other languages of East Asia, makes frequent use of the topic–comment construction to form sentences. Chinese also has an extensive system of classifiers and measure words , another trait shared with neighboring languages such as Japanese and Korean. Other notable grammatical features common to all the spoken varieties of Chinese include the use of serial verb construction , pronoun dropping , and
875-510: A Chinese character is the morpheme, as characters represent the smallest grammatical units with individual meanings in the Chinese language. Estimates of the total number of Chinese words and lexicalized phrases vary greatly. The Hanyu Da Zidian , a compendium of Chinese characters, includes 54,678 head entries for characters, including oracle bone versions. The Zhonghua Zihai (1994) contains 85,568 head entries for character definitions and
1050-599: A Shanghai resident may speak both Standard Chinese and Shanghainese ; if they grew up elsewhere, they are also likely fluent in the dialect of their home region. In addition to Standard Chinese, a majority of Taiwanese people also speak Taiwanese Hokkien (also called 台語 ; 'Taiwanese' ), Hakka , or an Austronesian language . A speaker in Taiwan may mix pronunciations and vocabulary from Standard Chinese and other languages of Taiwan in everyday speech. In part due to traditional cultural ties with Guangdong , Cantonese
1225-462: A central variety (i.e. prestige variety, such as Standard Mandarin), as the issue requires some careful handling when mutual intelligibility is inconsistent with language identity. The Chinese government's official Chinese designation for the major branches of Chinese is 方言 ; fāngyán ; 'regional speech', whereas the more closely related varieties within these are called 地点方言 ; 地點方言 ; dìdiǎn fāngyán ; 'local speech'. Because of
1400-615: A compromise between the pronunciations of different regions. The royal courts of the Ming and early Qing dynasties operated using a koiné language known as Guanhua , based on the Nanjing dialect of Mandarin. Standard Chinese is an official language of both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan), one of the four official languages of Singapore , and one of
1575-714: A corresponding increase in the number of homophones . As an example, the small Langenscheidt Pocket Chinese Dictionary lists six words that are commonly pronounced as shí in Standard Chinese: In modern spoken Mandarin, however, tremendous ambiguity would result if all of these words could be used as-is. The 20th century Yuen Ren Chao poem Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den exploits this, consisting of 92 characters all pronounced shi . As such, most of these words have been replaced in speech, if not in writing, with less ambiguous disyllabic compounds. Only
1750-691: A distinctive dialect related to Cantonese called Taishanese (or Toishanese). During the 1850s, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom , whose leader Hong Xiuquan was born in Guangdong and received a pamphlet from a Protestant Christian missionary in Guangdong, was allied with a local Guangdong Red Turban Rebellion (1854–1856) . Because of direct contact with the West, Guangdong was the centre of anti-Manchu and anti-imperialist activity. The generally acknowledged founder of modern China, Sun Yat-sen ,
1925-534: A form of Chinese opera popular in Cantonese speaking areas. Related Yue dialects are spoken in most of the western half of the province. The area comprising the cities of Chaozhou , Shantou and Jieyang in coastal east Guangdong, known as Chaoshan , forms its own cultural sphere. The Teochew people here, along with Hailufeng Min people in Shanwei , speak Hokkien , which is a Min dialect closely related to mainstream Southern Min (Hokkien) and their cuisine
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#17327799780482100-410: A high urban population make Shenzhen a large port megacity . The logistics industry accounts for around 10.1 percent (178.27 billion RMB) of the city's nominal GDP in 2015, which was an increase of 9.4 percent. Shenzhen Port's first foreign trade blockchain cargo release platform was launched recently. Shenzhen had prioritized the cultural industry in according to the 13th Five-Year Plan, establishing
2275-644: A huge influx of refugees trying to escape to Hong Kong from the upheavals that were occurring in mainland China , and a range from 100,000 to 560,000 refugees resided in the county. In January 1978, a Central Inspection Team sent by the State Council investigated and established the issue of creating a foreign trade port in Bao'an County. In May, the investigation team wrote the "Hong Kong and Macao Economic Investigation Report" and proposed to turn Bao'an County and Zhuhai into commodity export bases. In August 1978,
2450-526: A merchant vessel's captain murdered a corrupt governor who had used his position to steal from the merchant. Together with Guangxi , Guangdong was made part of Lingnan Circuit (political division Circuit), or Mountain-South Circuit, in 627 during the Tang dynasty . The Guangdong part of Lingnan Circuit was renamed Guangnan East Circuit ( 廣南東路 ) in 971 during the Song dynasty (960–1279). "Guangnan East" ( 廣南東 )
2625-576: A millennium. The Four Commanderies of Han were established in northern Korea in the 1st century BCE but disintegrated in the following centuries. Chinese Buddhism spread over East Asia between the 2nd and 5th centuries CE, and with it the study of scriptures and literature in Literary Chinese. Later, strong central governments modeled on Chinese institutions were established in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, with Literary Chinese serving as
2800-558: A population of 30,000. In May 1980 the Central Committee designated Shenzhen as the first SEZ in China, which was promoted by then- paramount leader Deng Xiaoping as part of China's reform and opening-up . Its objective is to be an experimental ground for the practice of market capitalism within a community guided by the ideals of socialism with Chinese characteristics . On 26 August, the Standing Committee of
2975-542: A secure reconstruction of Proto-Sino-Tibetan, the higher-level structure of the family remains unclear. A top-level branching into Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages is often assumed, but has not been convincingly demonstrated. The first written records appeared over 3,000 years ago during the Shang dynasty . As the language evolved over this period, the various local varieties became mutually unintelligible. In reaction, central governments have repeatedly sought to promulgate
3150-508: A similar way to the use of Latin and Ancient Greek roots in European languages. Many new compounds, or new meanings for old phrases, were created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to name Western concepts and artifacts. These coinages, written in shared Chinese characters, have then been borrowed freely between languages. They have even been accepted into Chinese, a language usually resistant to loanwords, because their foreign origin
3325-678: A single language. However, their lack of mutual intelligibility means they are sometimes considered to be separate languages in a family . Investigation of the historical relationships among the varieties of Chinese is ongoing. Currently, most classifications posit 7 to 13 main regional groups based on phonetic developments from Middle Chinese , of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin with 66%, or around 800 million speakers, followed by Min (75 million, e.g. Southern Min ), Wu (74 million, e.g. Shanghainese ), and Yue (68 million, e.g. Cantonese ). These branches are unintelligible to each other, and many of their subgroups are unintelligible with
3500-690: A sub-provincial city, the National People's Congress (NPC) in 1981 granted legislative powers to Shenzhen and other Special Economic Zones, giving the city the privilege to make its own laws and regulations. The Standing Committee of the NPC also granted Shenzhen voted and passed the "Decision on Authorizing the Shenzhen Municipal People's Congress and its Standing Committee and the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government to respectively formulate laws and regulations for implementation in
3675-631: A unified standard. The earliest examples of Old Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones dated to c. 1250 BCE , during the Late Shang . The next attested stage came from inscriptions on bronze artifacts dating to the Western Zhou period (1046–771 BCE), the Classic of Poetry and portions of the Book of Documents and I Ching . Scholars have attempted to reconstruct
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#17327799780483850-575: A variety of Yue from a small coastal area around Taishan, Guangdong . In parts of South China, the dialect of a major city may be only marginally intelligible to its neighbors. For example, Wuzhou and Taishan are located approximately 260 km (160 mi) and 190 km (120 mi) away from Guangzhou respectively, but the Yue variety spoken in Wuzhou is more similar to the Guangzhou dialect than
4025-532: A wider sense, for the phylogenetically related residents and Chinese dialects outside the provincial capital. The Neolithic era began in the Pearl River Delta ( 珠江三角洲 ) 7,000 years before present (BP), with the early period from around 7000 to 5000 BP (c. 5050–3050 BC), and the late period from about 5000 to 3500 BP (c. 3050–1550 BC). In coastal Guangdong, the Neolithic was likely introduced from
4200-448: Is China's most populous province and its 15th-largest by area, as well as the third-most populous country subdivision in the world . Guangdong's economy is the largest of any provincial-level division in China, with a GDP of 13.57 trillion RMB ($ 1.9 trillion in GDP nominal) in 2023, contributing approximately 10.6% of mainland China's economic output. It has a diversified economy, and
4375-919: Is Teochew cuisine . Teochew opera is also well-known and has a unique form. The Hakka people live in large areas of Guangdong, including Huizhou , Meizhou , Shenzhen , Heyuan , Shaoguan and other areas. Much of the Eastern part of Guangdong is populated by the Hakka people except for the Chaozhou and Hailufeng area. Hakka culture include Hakka cuisine , Han opera ( simplified Chinese : 汉剧 ; traditional Chinese : 漢劇 ), Hakka Hanyue and sixian (traditional instrumental music) and Hakka folk songs ( 客家山歌 ). Chinese language Chinese ( simplified Chinese : 汉语 ; traditional Chinese : 漢語 ; pinyin : Hànyǔ ; lit. ' Han language' or 中文 ; Zhōngwén ; 'Chinese writing')
4550-543: Is Taishanese. Wuzhou is located directly upstream from Guangzhou on the Pearl River , whereas Taishan is to Guangzhou's southwest, with the two cities separated by several river valleys. In parts of Fujian , the speech of some neighbouring counties or villages is mutually unintelligible. Local varieties of Chinese are conventionally classified into seven dialect groups, largely based on the different evolution of Middle Chinese voiced initials: Proportions of first-language speakers The classification of Li Rong , which
4725-709: Is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in China , as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora . Approximately 1.35 billion people, or 17% of the global population, speak a variety of Chinese as their first language . Chinese languages form the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The spoken varieties of Chinese are usually considered by native speakers to be dialects of
4900-592: Is also one of the leading provinces in research and education in China. It hosts 160 institutions of higher education , ranking first in the South Central China region and second among all Chinese provinces/municipalities, after Jiangsu . As of 2023, two major cities in the province ranked in the world's top 20 cities (Guangzhou 8th and Shenzhen 19th) by scientific research output. " Guǎng " ( traditional Chinese : 廣 ; simplified Chinese : 广 ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with
5075-490: Is called either 华语 ; 華語 ; Huáyǔ or 汉语 ; 漢語 ; Hànyǔ ). Standard Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. The governments of both China and Taiwan intend for speakers of all Chinese speech varieties to use it as a common language of communication. Therefore, it is used in government agencies, in the media, and as a language of instruction in schools. Diglossia is common among Chinese speakers. For example,
5250-666: Is considered the paradigmatic example of the 1980s approach to urbanization. In December 1990, under the authority of the China Securities Regulatory Commission , the Shenzhen Stock Exchange was established to provide a platform for centralized securities trading. In February 1992, the Standing Committee of the NPC granted the government of Shenzhen the power to make local laws and regulations. In 1996 and early 1997,
5425-421: Is dry. The annual precipitation averages at around 1,933 mm (76 in), some of which is delivered in typhoons that strike from the east during summer and early autumn. Extreme temperatures have ranged from 0.2 °C (32 °F) on 11 February 1957 to 38.7 °C (102 °F) on 10 July 1980. Like all governing institutions in mainland China , Shenzhen has a parallel party-government system, in which
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5600-484: Is geographically separated from the north by a few mountain ranges collectively called the Nan Mountains (Nan Ling). The highest peak in the province is Shikengkong with an elevation of 6,240 feet (1,900 meters) above sea level. Guangdong borders Fujian to the northeast, Jiangxi and Hunan to the north, Guangxi autonomous region to the west, and Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions to
5775-711: Is governed by a one-party system like the rest of China. The Governor is in charge of provincial affairs; however, the Communist Party Secretary, often from outside of Guangdong, keeps the Governor in check. According to Freedom House 's China Dissent Monitor, Guangdong accounted for 17% of dissent events in the first quarter of 2024 – over 100 events despite heavy Censorship in China . In 2024, Freedom House rated China as below zero on political rights (−2 out of 40). Hong Kong and Macau , while historically parts of Guangdong before becoming colonies of
5950-570: Is larger than all, except California. By PPP terms, as of 2022, Guangdong's economy ranked between Turkey and Italy with a GDP of $ 3.35 trillion and US$ 3.06 trillion respectively, the 11th and 12th largest in the world respectively. After the communist revolution and until the start of the Deng Xiaoping reforms in 1978, Guangdong was an economic backwater, although a large underground, service-based economy has always existed. Economic development policies encouraged industrial development in
6125-651: Is now Dongguan city, although a military garrison remained. During the Song dynasty , Nantou and the surrounding area became an important trade hub for salt and spices in the South China Sea . The area then became known for producing pearls during the Yuan dynasty . In the early Ming era, Chinese sailors of a fleet would go to a Mazu temple in Chiwan (in present-day Nanshan District ) to pray as they go to Nanyang ( Southeast Asia ). The Battle of Tunmen , when
6300-696: Is now one of the richest in the nation, with the most billionaires in mainland China, the highest GDP among all the provinces, although wage growth has only recently begun to rise due to a large influx of migrant workers from neighboring provinces. By 2015, the local government of Guangdong hopes that the service industry will account for more than 50 percent of the provinces GDP and high-tech manufacturing another 20 percent. In 2021, Guangdong's primary, secondary, and tertiary industries were worth 534 billion RMB (US$ 79.4 billion), 5.28 trillion RMB (US$ 785.6 billion), and 7.09 trillion RMB (US$ 1.05 trillion), respectively. Guangdong contributes approximately 10.6% of
6475-419: Is now the province with the highest gross domestic product in China. In 1952, a small section of Guangdong's coastline ( Qinzhou , Lianzhou (now Hepu County ), Fangchenggang and Beihai ) was given to Guangxi, giving it access to the sea. This was reversed in 1955, and then restored in 1965. Hainan Island was originally part of Guangdong, but it was separated into its own province in 1988. Guangdong faces
6650-603: Is often described as a 'monosyllabic' language. However, this is only partially correct. It is largely accurate when describing Old and Middle Chinese; in Classical Chinese, around 90% of words consist of a single character that corresponds one-to-one with a morpheme , the smallest unit of meaning in a language. In modern varieties, it usually remains the case that morphemes are monosyllabic—in contrast, English has many multi-syllable morphemes, both bound and free , such as 'seven', 'elephant', 'para-' and '-able'. Some of
6825-445: Is only about an eighth as many as English. All varieties of spoken Chinese use tones to distinguish words. A few dialects of north China may have as few as three tones, while some dialects in south China have up to 6 or 12 tones, depending on how one counts. One exception from this is Shanghainese which has reduced the set of tones to a two-toned pitch accent system much like modern Japanese. A very common example used to illustrate
7000-648: Is part of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road that runs from the Chinese coast south to the tip of India via the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean, there to the Upper Adriatic region to the northern Italian hub of Trieste with its rail connections to Central Europe and the North Sea . As of August 2023, Shenzhen has the seventh-most Fortune Global 500 headquarters of any city in the world and
7175-400: Is populated predominantly by Yue Chinese speakers, though the influx in the last three decades of millions of Mandarin -speaking immigrants has slightly diminished Cantonese linguistic dominance. This region is associated with Cantonese cuisine . Dim Sum is one famous example of Cantonese cuisine, dividing Cantonese food into small portions and served with small dishes. Cantonese opera is
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7350-487: Is set against the backdrop of the classic novel, Journey to the West . Guangdong Guangdong , previously romanized as Kwangtung or Canton , is a coastal province in South China , on the north shore of the South China Sea . The provincial capital is Guangzhou . With a population of 126.84 million (as of 2021) across a total area of about 179,800 km (69,400 sq mi), Guangdong
7525-668: Is specifically meant. However, when one of the above words forms part of a compound, the disambiguating syllable is generally dropped and the resulting word is still disyllabic. For example, 石 ; shí alone, and not 石头 ; 石頭 ; shítou , appears in compounds as meaning 'stone' such as 石膏 ; shígāo ; 'plaster', 石灰 ; shíhuī ; 'lime', 石窟 ; shíkū ; 'grotto', 石英 ; 'quartz', and 石油 ; shíyóu ; 'petroleum'. Although many single-syllable morphemes ( 字 ; zì ) can stand alone as individual words, they more often than not form multi-syllable compounds known as 词 ; 詞 ; cí , which more closely resembles
7700-513: Is the world's fourth busiest container port . Shenzhen roughly follows the administrative boundaries of Bao'an County , which was established in imperial times. After the Opium Wars , the southern portion of Bao'an County was occupied by the British government and became part of British Hong Kong , while the village of Shenzhen was next to the border. Shenzhen turned into a city in 1979. In
7875-547: Is the home to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange , one of the largest stock exchanges in the world by market capitalization and the Guangdong Free-Trade Zone . Shenzhen is ranked as an Alpha- ( global first-tier ) city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network . Its nominal GDP has surpassed those of its neighboring cities of Guangzhou and Hong Kong and is now among those of the cities with
8050-489: Is the largest reference work based purely on character and its literary variants. The CC-CEDICT project (2010) contains 97,404 contemporary entries including idioms, technology terms, and names of political figures, businesses, and products. The 2009 version of the Webster's Digital Chinese Dictionary (WDCD), based on CC-CEDICT, contains over 84,000 entries. The most comprehensive pure linguistic Chinese-language dictionary,
8225-509: Is the source of the name "Guangdong" ( 廣東 ; 广东 ). As time passed, the demographics of what is now Guangdong gradually shifted to ( Han ) Chinese dominance as the populations intermingled due to commerce along the great canals. From the fall of the Han dynasty onwards, it shifted more abruptly through massive migration from the north during periods of political turmoil and nomadic incursions. For example, internal strife in northern China following
8400-501: Is used as an everyday language in Hong Kong and Macau . The designation of various Chinese branches remains controversial. Some linguists and most ordinary Chinese people consider all the spoken varieties as one single language, as speakers share a common national identity and a common written form. Others instead argue that it is inappropriate to refer to major branches of Chinese such as Mandarin, Wu, and so on as "dialects" because
8575-500: Is used in education, media, formal speech, and everyday life—though Mandarin is increasingly taught in schools due to the mainland's growing influence. Historically, the Chinese language has spread to its neighbors through a variety of means. Northern Vietnam was incorporated into the Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE) in 111 BCE, marking the beginning of a period of Chinese control that ran almost continuously for
8750-552: Is used in the Language Atlas of China (1987), distinguishes three further groups: Some varieties remain unclassified, including the Danzhou dialect on Hainan , Waxianghua spoken in western Hunan , and Shaozhou Tuhua spoken in northern Guangdong . Standard Chinese is the standard language of China (where it is called 普通话 ; pǔtōnghuà ) and Taiwan, and one of the four official languages of Singapore (where it
8925-428: Is very complex, with a large number of consonants and vowels, but they are probably not all distinguished in any single dialect. Most linguists now believe it represents a diasystem encompassing 6th-century northern and southern standards for reading the classics. The complex relationship between spoken and written Chinese is an example of diglossia : as spoken, Chinese varieties have evolved at different rates, while
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#17327799780489100-753: The Qieyun rime dictionary (601 CE), and a late period in the 10th century, reflected by rhyme tables such as the Yunjing constructed by ancient Chinese philologists as a guide to the Qieyun system. These works define phonological categories but with little hint of what sounds they represent. Linguists have identified these sounds by comparing the categories with pronunciations in modern varieties of Chinese , borrowed Chinese words in Japanese, Vietnamese, and Korean, and transcription evidence. The resulting system
9275-563: The 2011 Summer Universiade and the China Hi-Tech Fair. A large portion of Shenzhen's population are migrants from all over China, and the city's population structure skews younger than most places in China. The earliest known recorded mention of the name chen could date from 1410, during the Ming dynasty . Locals call the drains in paddy fields "Zhen" ( Chinese : 圳 ; lit. 'ditch', 'drain'). Shenzhen
9450-678: The 26th Universiade , an international multi-sport event organized for university athletes. In April 2015, the Shekou Industrial Zone and the Qianhai Zone were integrated within the newly established Guangdong Free-Trade Zone . On 18 August 2019 the central government in Beijing unveiled reform plans covering economic, social, and political sectors of Shenzhen, labeling Shenzhen a pilot demonstration zone for socialism with Chinese characteristics. Shenzhen roughly follows
9625-540: The Asia-Pacific region. Guangdong surpassed Henan and Shandong to become China's most populous province in January 2005, registering 79.1 million permanent residents and 31 million migrants who lived in the province for at least six months of the year; the total population was 126,012,510 in the 2020 Chinese census , accounting for 8.93 percent of mainland China 's population. This makes it
9800-670: The CCP Committee Secretary , officially termed the Chinese Communist Party Shenzhen Municipal Committee Secretary, outranks the Mayor. The CCP committee acts as the top policy-formulation body, and is typically composed of 12 members (including the secretary). Despite being a sub-provincial city , Shenzhen as a SEZ still wields a lot of autonomy from the central government. In addition to being promoted to
9975-529: The Cantonese , Hakka , Teochew dialects have proportionately more speakers among overseas Chinese people than Mandarin-speaking Chinese. Additionally, many Taishanese-speaking Chinese emigrated to Western countries, with the results that many Western versions of Chinese words were derived from the Cantonese dialects rather than through the mainstream Mandarin language, such as " dim sum ". Some Mandarin Chinese words originally of foreign origin also came from
10150-509: The Eastern Jin administration split up Nanhai and established a new Dongguan Commandery [ zh ] (东官郡). The seat of both the commandery and Bao'an County, one of its six counties, was located around the modern town of Nantou. In 590, the Sui administration merged the region back into Nanhai. In 757, the Tang administration renamed the county Dongguan, and moved its seat to what
10325-750: The Huiyang District Committee reported to the Provincial Committee on the "Report on the Request for the Change of Bao'an County to Shenzhen". On 18 October, the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee decided to change Bao'an County into Bao'an City and to turn it into a medium-level prefecture-level city with a foreign trade base. The Huiyang District Committee and
10500-533: The Korean , Japanese and Vietnamese languages, and today comprise over half of their vocabularies. This massive influx led to changes in the phonological structure of the languages, contributing to the development of moraic structure in Japanese and the disruption of vowel harmony in Korean. Borrowed Chinese morphemes have been used extensively in all these languages to coin compound words for new concepts, in
10675-585: The Lo Wu Bridge in Shenzhen, though this was detonated by the British, preventing the Japanese from entering Hong Kong. In 1953, four years after the founding of the People's Republic of China , the Bao'an County government decided to move to Shenzhen, since the town was closer to the KCR and had a larger economy than Nantou. From the 1950s to the end of the 1970s, Shenzhen and the rest of Bao'an County oversaw
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#173277997804810850-451: The May Fourth Movement beginning in 1919. After the fall of the Northern Song dynasty and subsequent reign of the Jurchen Jin and Mongol Yuan dynasties in northern China, a common speech (now called Old Mandarin ) developed based on the dialects of the North China Plain around the capital. The 1324 Zhongyuan Yinyun was a dictionary that codified the rhyming conventions of new sanqu verse form in this language. Together with
11025-497: The National Language Unification Commission finally settled on the Beijing dialect in 1932. The People's Republic founded in 1949 retained this standard but renamed it 普通话 ; 普通話 ; pǔtōnghuà ; 'common speech'. The national language is now used in education, the media, and formal situations in both mainland China and Taiwan. In Hong Kong and Macau , Cantonese is the dominant spoken language due to cultural influence from Guangdong immigrants and colonial-era policies, and
11200-422: The Nationalist government 's final footholds in Mainland China , with Guangzhou temporarily serving as the Kuomintang 's provisional capitol. The People's Liberation Army seized control of the province after the retreat of the government of the Republic of China to Taiwan . The new Chinese Communist Party administration issued harsh taxes, requisitioning between 22 and 60 percent of grain annually. However,
11375-411: The Pearl River Delta , bordering Hong Kong to the south, Huizhou to the north and northeast, Dongguan to the north and northwest. Lingdingyang and Pearl River to the west and Mirs Bay to the east and roughly 100 kilometres (62 mi) southeast of the provincial capital of Guangzhou . As of the end of 2017, the resident population of Shenzhen was 12,528,300, of which the registered population
11550-412: The Qin dynasty , immigrants from the Central Plains moved in and formed a local culture with a unique style. With the outward movement of the Guangdong people , the Hakka and Cantonese languages , music , cuisine , opera and tea ceremony have spread throughout the nation, Southeast Asia , and other countries. Guangdong was also the birthplace of the father of modern China and the founder of
11725-530: The Qin dynasty . Under the Qin Dynasty, Chinese administration began and along with it reliable historical records in the region. After establishing the first unified Chinese empire , the Qin expanded southwards and set up Nanhai Commandery at Panyu , near what is now part of Guangzhou. The region was an independent kingdom as Nanyue between the fall of Qin and the reign of Emperor Wu of Han . The Han dynasty administered Guangdong, Guangxi, and northern Vietnam as Jiaozhi Province ; southernmost Jiaozhi Province
11900-464: The Shenzhen Guesthouse Hotel in Shenzhen was home to the Provisional Legislative Council and Provisional Executive Council of Hong Kong in preparation for the handover of Hong Kong in 1997. By 2001, as a result of Shenzhen's increasing economic prospects, increasing numbers of migrants from mainland China chose to go to Shenzhen and stay there instead of trying to illegally cross into Hong Kong. There were 9,000 captured border-crossers in 2000, while
12075-422: The South China Sea to the south and has a total of 4,300 km (2,700 mi) of coastline. The Leizhou Peninsula is on the southwestern end of the province. There are a few inactive volcanoes on Leizhou Peninsula. The Pearl River Delta is the convergent point of three upstream rivers: the East River , North River , and West River . The river delta is filled with hundreds of small islands. The province
12250-421: The Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea , particularly the Portuguese and British, traded extensively through Guangzhou. Macau , on the southern coast of Guangdong, was the first European settlement in 1557. In the 19th century, the opium traded through Guangzhou triggered the First Opium War , opening an era of Western imperialists' incursion and intervention in China. In addition to Macau , which
12425-401: The Teochew people in Chaoshan and the Hakka people in Huizhou , Meizhou , Heyuan , Shaoguan and Zhanjiang . Shaozhou Tuhua is spoken in Shaoguan and Leizhou Min is spoken in the Leizhou Peninsula. There is a small Yao population in the north. Other smaller minority groups include She , Miao , Li , and Zhuang . Guangdong has a highly unbalanced gender ratio that is among
12600-778: The Yantian International Container Terminals , the Chiwan Container Terminals, the container terminals of the Shekou Industrial Zone , the China Merchants Port , and Shenzhen Haixing . The Port of Shenzhen is therefore capable of handled a record volume of containerization . With rising trade increased cargo shipments in 2005, the container port was ranked as the world's fourth-busiest container port . High port traffic levels combined with
12775-552: The death penalty with a two-year reprieve for accepting bribes up to US$ 5.4 million. Shenzhen has direct jurisdiction over nine administrative Districts and one New District : Shenzhen was originally Bao'an County . On 5 March 1979, the State Council of the People's Republic of China dissolved the county and set up the city of Shenzhen in its place initially with six districts: Luohu ( 罗湖 ), Nantou ( 南头 ), Songgang ( 松岗 ), Longhua ( 龙华 ), Longgang ( 龙岗 ), and Kuiyong ( 葵涌 ), with
12950-478: The oracle bone inscriptions created during the Shang dynasty c. 1250 BCE . The phonetic categories of Old Chinese can be reconstructed from the rhymes of ancient poetry. During the Northern and Southern period , Middle Chinese went through several sound changes and split into several varieties following prolonged geographic and political separation. The Qieyun , a rime dictionary , recorded
13125-596: The phonology of Old Chinese by comparing later varieties of Chinese with the rhyming practice of the Classic of Poetry and the phonetic elements found in the majority of Chinese characters. Although many of the finer details remain unclear, most scholars agree that Old Chinese differs from Middle Chinese in lacking retroflex and palatal obstruents but having initial consonant clusters of some sort, and in having voiceless nasals and liquids. Most recent reconstructions also describe an atonal language with consonant clusters at
13300-497: The "Regulations on Vigorously Developing Foreign Trade to Increase Foreign Exchange Income" and agreed to pilot the first special economic zones (SEZ) in Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou, and Xiamen . In November, Shenzhen was elevated to the status of prefecture-level city at the regional level by the Guangdong provincial administration. Hundreds of small villages nearby, such as Yumin Cun, were incorporated into Shenzhen. In 1980, Shenzhen had
13475-564: The "floating population", is due to Guangdong's booming economy and high demand for labor. If Guangdong were an independent nation, it would rank among the twelfth largest countries of the world by population . In 2021, Guangdong's population is 74.6% urban and 25.4% rural. Guangdong is the ancestral home of large numbers of overseas Chinese . Most of the railroad laborers in Canada , the Western United States and Panama in
13650-610: The 19th century came from Guangdong, especially the Siyi area. Many people from the region also traveled to California and other parts of the United States during the gold rush of 1849 , and also to Australia during its gold rush a decade or so later. The majority of the province's population is Han Chinese . Within the Han Chinese, the largest subgroup in Guangdong are the Cantonese people . Two other major groups are
13825-448: The Bao'an County Committee, however, defended the change to rename Bao'an County to Shenzhen, claiming that people in the world know more about Shenzhen and its port than they know about Bao'an County. On 23 January 1979, the Guangdong provincial administration and the district of Huiyang announced their proposal to rename Bao'an County to Shenzhen and was approved and put into effect by the State Council on March 5 of that year. Also,
14000-541: The China International High-tech Achievements Fair, which showcases high-tech products and provides for dialogue and investment for high-tech. As a result, Shenzhen is dubbed by media outlets as "China's Silicon Valley " or the "Silicon Valley of Hardware" for the world. Shenzhen is home to a number of large financial institutions, such as China Merchants Bank and Ping An Insurance and its subsidiary Ping An Bank . Since
14175-627: The Guangzhou People's Intermediate Court charged former Shenzhen Deputy Mayor Wang Ju with bribery and abuse of power and sentenced him to 20 years in prison. In June 2005, the Shenzhen People's Intermediate Court charged sentenced Luohu District Public Security Director An Huijun to 15 years in prison for accepting bribes. In May 2011, the Zhengzhou Intermediate Court sentenced former mayor Xu Zongheng to
14350-565: The Latin-based Vietnamese alphabet . English words of Chinese origin include tea from Hokkien 茶 ( tê ), dim sum from Cantonese 點心 ( dim2 sam1 ), and kumquat from Cantonese 金橘 ( gam1 gwat1 ). The sinologist Jerry Norman has estimated that there are hundreds of mutually unintelligible varieties of Chinese. These varieties form a dialect continuum , in which differences in speech generally become more pronounced as distances increase, though
14525-420: The Ming won a naval battle against invading Portuguese , was fought south of Nantou. To prevent a rebellion from Ming loyalists under Zheng Chenggong , better known as Koxinga, on the Chinese coast, the recently established Qing administration resettled coastal residents inland and re-organized coastal counties. As a result, Bao'an County lost two-thirds of its territory to the neighboring Dongguan and
14700-611: The National People's Congress (NPC) approved the "Regulations of the Guangdong Special Economic Zone." In March 1981 Shenzhen was promoted to a sub-provincial division . There were plans for Shenzhen to develop its currency, but the plans were shelved due to the risk and the disagreement that a country should not be operating with two currencies. To enforce law and order in the city, the Shenzhen government erected barbed wire and checkpoints between
14875-605: The Republic of China, Sun Yat-sen . He declared a military government there in the Warlord Era . The two special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau fall within the scope of Guangdong's cultural influence, and its culture still has profound influences on the Chinese in Singapore and Malaysia , with the vast majority of the Chinese diaspora in the two countries claiming ancestry from Guangdong. Guangdong
15050-779: The Shenzhen Fashion Creative Industry Association (深圳市时尚文化创意协会) and planning the 4.6 square-kilometer Dalang Fashion Valley (大浪时尚创意城). On 7 December 2008, UNESCO approved Shenzhen's entrance into the Creative Cities Network , and awarded the Shenzhen the title of "United Nations Design Capital." Altogether, the cultural industry in turn contributes to 5.8 percent (102.116 billion RMB) of Shenzhen's economy in 2015. Shenzhen-based video game developer Game Science released Black Myth: Wukong , which achieved significant commercial success on its August 20, 2024 release. The game
15225-549: The Shenzhen Special Economic Zone" in order to give fully strengthen Shenzhen's legislative powers without interference from the central government. There were several cases of high-ranking Shenzhen officials that were arrested on charges relating to corruption. In December 2002, the Shenzhen People's Intermediate Court sentenced Zhao Yucun, former Commissioner of Shenzhen Customs, to life imprisonment for taking bribes of 9 million RMB . In November 2003,
15400-630: The Southern Song court by Mongol naval forces in The Battle of Yamen 1279 in Guangdong marked the end of the Southern Song dynasty (960–1279). During the Mongol Yuan dynasty , large parts of current Guangdong belonged to Jiangxi . Its present name, "Guangdong Province" was given in early Ming dynasty . Since the 16th century, Guangdong has had extensive trade links with the rest of the world. European merchants coming northwards via
15575-526: The State Council dissolved the "second line," and expanded the Shenzhen SEZ to include all districts, a five-fold increase over its pre-expansion size. On 26 August 2010, on the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Shenzhen SEZ, the State Council approved the "Overall Development Plan for Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone." In August 2011, the city hosted
15750-480: The State Council, Shenzhen re-organized Longhua New District as Longhua District and Pingshan New District as Pingshan District on 11 October 2016 and Guangming New District as Guangming District on 24 May 2018, therefore becoming their own jurisdictions. Shenzhen was the first of the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) to be established by then paramount leader Deng Xiaoping . Back to Apr 1979, Shenzhen
15925-620: The Two Guangs were formally separated as Guǎngnán Dōnglù ( 廣南東路 ; 广南东路 ; 'East Circuit in Southern Guang';) and Guǎngnán Xīlù ( 廣南西路 ; 广南西路 ; 'West Circuit in Southern Guang'), which became abbreviated as Guǎngdōng Lù ( 廣東路 ; 广东路 ) and Guǎngxī Lù ( 廣西路 ; 广西路 ). "Canton", though etymologically derived from Cantão (the Portuguese transliteration of "Guangdong"), usually by itself refers to
16100-600: The United Kingdom and Portugal, respectively, are special administrative regions (SARs). Furthermore, the Basic Laws of both SARs explicitly forbid provincial governments from intervening in local politics. As a result, many issues with Hong Kong and Macau, such as border policy and water rights, have been settled by negotiations between the SARs' governments and the Guangdong provincial government . Guangdong and
16275-471: The United Kingdom, and leased the New Territories from Xin'an to the United Kingdom for 99 years. Xin'an was briefly occupied by a British force under the command of Henry Arthur Blake , the governor of Hong Kong , for half a year in 1899. From the 3,076 square kilometres (1,188 sq mi) of territory that Xin'an held before the treaties, 1,055.61 square kilometres (407.57 sq mi) of
16450-471: The administrative boundaries of the historical Bao'an County . The southern portion of Bao'an County became part of British Hong Kong after the Opium Wars , while the village of Shenzhen was on the border. Shenzhen railway station was the last stop on the mainland Chinese section of the Kowloon–Canton Railway , and Shenzhen's economy grew and it became a city by 1979. Shenzhen is located within
16625-591: The area that is now Shenzhen over 600 years ago. The Hakka people also have a history in Shenzhen since 300 years ago when they first immigrated. In 214 BC, when Emperor Qin Shi Huang unified China under the Qin dynasty , the area was submitted to the jurisdiction of the established Nanhai Commandery , one of the three commanderies that were set up in Lingnan , and was assimilated into Zhongyuan culture. In 331 AD,
16800-617: The city limits with a total capacity of 525 million tonnes. Notable rivers in Shenzhen include the Shenzhen River , Maozhou River and Longgang River. Although Shenzhen is situated about a degree south of the Tropic of Cancer , due to the Siberian anticyclone it has a warm, monsoon -influenced, humid subtropical climate ( Köppen Cwa ) though it is fairly close to a Tropical one. Winters are mild and relatively dry, due in part to
16975-707: The city merged Shekou Management Area and Nantou Management Area to form the Nanshan District , renamed Shangbu Management Area to the Futian District , and merged Luohu Management Area and Shatoujiao Management Area to form the Luohu District . In December 1992, Bao'an County was dissolved again, with its area taken by Shenzhen and split into two new districts: Bao'an District and Longgang District , though economic privileges within special economics zones did not pertain to them as they were outside
17150-482: The city receives 1,853 hours of bright sunshine annually. The monsoon reaches its peak intensity in the summer months, when the city also experiences very humid and hot conditions. Despite this, extreme heat is rare, there are only 2.4 days of 35 °C (95 °F)+ temperatures. The region is prone to torrential rain as well, with 9.7 days that have 50 mm (1.97 in) or more of rain, and 2.2 days of at least 100 mm (3.94 in). The latter portion of autumn
17325-586: The city would establish six districts: Luohu , Nantou, Songgang, Longhua , Longgang and Kuiyong. On 31 January 1979, the Central Committee of the Communist Party approved a plan to establish the Shekou Industrial Zone in Shenzhen with the purpose "to lead domestic, overseas, and diversified operations, industrial and commercial integration, and trading" based on the systems of that of Hong Kong and Macau . The Shekou Industrial Zone project
17500-617: The city's establishment as a SEZ, a number of foreign banks had established offices in the city, including Citibank , HSBC , Standard Chartered , and Bank of East Asia . In total, the financial industry accounts for 14.5% of the city's nominal GDP in 2015 (254.282 billion RMB), which was a 15.9% increase over the previous year. By the end of 2016, the total assets of the financial industry amounted to 12.7 trillion RMB (banking industry assets were 7.85 trillion RMB, security companies assets were 1.25 trillion RMB, and insurance industry assets were 3.6 trillion RMB), making Shenzhen's financial industry
17675-438: The city, the Shenzhen government erected a border known as the second line ( Chinese : 二线关 ), which consisted of barbed wire and checkpoints between the city and the rest of China. Initially, the border control was relatively strict, requiring non-Shenzhen citizens to obtain special permissions for entering. Over the years, border controls have gradually weakened, and permission requirement has been abandoned. In January 1990,
17850-468: The county was ceded to the British. In response to the Wuchang Uprising in 1911, Xin'an residents rebelled against the local Qing administration and successfully overthrew them. In the same year the Chinese section of the Kowloon–Canton Railway (KCR) was opened to the public. The last stop on the Chinese side was Shenzhen railway station , helping the town's economy and opened Shenzhen up to
18025-399: The different spoken dialects varies, but in general, there has been a tendency to a reduction in sounds from Middle Chinese. The Mandarin dialects in particular have experienced a dramatic decrease in sounds and so have far more polysyllabic words than most other spoken varieties. The total number of syllables in some varieties is therefore only about a thousand, including tonal variation, which
18200-484: The difficulties involved in determining the difference between language and dialect, other terms have been proposed. These include topolect , lect , vernacular , regional , and variety . Syllables in the Chinese languages have some unique characteristics. They are tightly related to the morphology and also to the characters of the writing system, and phonologically they are structured according to fixed rules. The structure of each syllable consists of
18375-408: The early 1980s, economic reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping resulted in the city becoming the first special economic zone of China due to its close proximity to Hong Kong, attracting foreign direct investment and migrants searching for opportunities. In thirty years, the city's economy and population boomed and has since emerged as a hub for technology, international trade, and finance. Shenzhen
18550-425: The early 1990s and has since spread to neighboring provinces, and also pulled their populations inward. The economic growth of Guangdong province owes much to the low-value-added manufacturing which characterized (and in many ways still defines) the province's economy following Deng Xiaoping 's reforms. Guangdong is not only China's largest exporter of goods, it is the country's largest importer as well. The province
18725-407: The economic output of Shenzhen the third largest out of Chinese cities, trailing behind Shanghai and Beijing . In addition, Shenzhen's GDP growth between 2016 and 2017 of 8.8% surpassed that of Hong Kong and Singapore , with 3.7% and 2.5% respectively. With a market capitalization of US$ 2.5 trillion as of 30 November 2018, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) is the 8th largest exchange in
18900-528: The end of the syllable, developing into tone distinctions in Middle Chinese. Several derivational affixes have also been identified, but the language lacks inflection , and indicated grammatical relationships using word order and grammatical particles . Middle Chinese was the language used during Northern and Southern dynasties and the Sui , Tang , and Song dynasties (6th–10th centuries CE). It can be divided into an early period, reflected by
19075-600: The existing unused border structures have been demolished and are being transformed into urban greenspaces and parks. On 15 January 2018, the State Council approved the removal of the barbed wire fence set up to mark the boundary of the SEZ. In early 2011, the provincial government of Guangdong approved the establishment of the Shenzhen-Shantou Special Cooperation Zone in the city and SEZ of Shantou , Guangdong that will last until 2040 with
19250-464: The fifth-highest number of billionaires of any city in the world. Shenzhen's nominal GDP is projected to be among the world top 10 largest cities in 2035 (together with Beijing , Shanghai and Guangzhou in China) according to a study by Oxford Economics and its nominal GDP per capita will reach above US$ 57,000 (ranking first in mainland China) in 2030, which is comparable to Tokyo and Seoul. Shenzhen
19425-413: The first one, 十 , normally appears in monosyllabic form in spoken Mandarin; the rest are normally used in the polysyllabic forms of respectively. In each, the homophone was disambiguated by the addition of another morpheme, typically either a near-synonym or some sort of generic word (e.g. 'head', 'thing'), the purpose of which is to indicate which of the possible meanings of the other, homophonic syllable
19600-491: The form of a word), to indicate a word's function within a sentence. In other words, Chinese has very few grammatical inflections —it possesses no tenses , no voices , no grammatical number , and only a few articles . They make heavy use of grammatical particles to indicate aspect and mood . In Mandarin, this involves the use of particles such as 了 ; le ; ' PFV ', 还 ; 還 ; hái ; 'still', and 已经 ; 已經 ; yǐjīng ; 'already'. Chinese has
19775-565: The government of the People's Republic of China, with Singapore officially adopting them in 1976. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and among Chinese-speaking communities overseas . Linguists classify all varieties of Chinese as part of the Sino-Tibetan language family , together with Burmese , Tibetan and many other languages spoken in the Himalayas and the Southeast Asian Massif . Although
19950-473: The greater Guangzhou area are served by several Radio Guangdong stations, Guangdong Television , Southern Television Guangdong , Shenzhen Television , and Guangzhou Television . There is an English programme produced by Radio Guangdong which broadcasts information about this region to the entire world through the WRN Broadcast . The central region, which is also the political and economic center,
20125-522: The highest of all provinces in China. According to a 2009 study published in The British Medical Journal , in the 1–4 age group, there are over 130 boys for every 100 girls. Religion in Guangdong (2012) According to a 2012 survey only around 7% of the population of Guangdong belongs to organised religions, the largest groups being Buddhists with 6.2%, followed by Protestants with 1.8% and Catholics with 1.2%. Around 90% of
20300-495: The humidity makes it feel hotter in summer. Frost is rare on the coast but may happen a few days each winter. In 2022, Guangdong's GDP was 13.57 trillion RMB ($ 1.9 trillion in GDP nominal, $ 3.78 trillion in PPP ), with a per capita GDP of CN¥102,465 ( US$ 15,234 in nominal or US$ 25,016 in PPP ). It is the richest province in South Central China region and the seventh richest among all provinces by GDP per capita. Guangdong has been
20475-641: The influence of the South China Sea , and frost is very rare; it begins dry but becomes progressively more humid and overcast. However, fog is most frequent in winter and spring, with 106 days per year reporting some fog. Early spring is the cloudiest time of year, and rainfall begins to dramatically increase in April; the rainy season lasts until late September to early October. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 27 percent in March to 53 percent in October,
20650-402: The interior provinces which were weakly joined to Guangdong via transportation links . The government policy of economic autarky made Guangdong's access to the ocean irrelevant. Deng Xiaoping's open door policy radically changed the economy of the province as it was able to take advantage of its access to the ocean, proximity to Hong Kong, and historical links to overseas Chinese . Guangdong
20825-414: The land borders of the main sections of the SEZ and the SEZ outskirts, as well as the rest of China, in 1983, which was known as the second line border. Much of Shenzhen's urban development in the 1980s focused in the area around the old border crossing and the market town. According to academic Richard Hu, whose research focuses on urbanization , in official discourses on urbanization in China , Shenzhen
21000-586: The language of administration and scholarship, a position it would retain until the late 19th century in Korea and (to a lesser extent) Japan, and the early 20th century in Vietnam. Scholars from different lands could communicate, albeit only in writing, using Literary Chinese. Although they used Chinese solely for written communication, each country had its own tradition of reading texts aloud using what are known as Sino-Xenic pronunciations . Chinese words with these pronunciations were also extensively imported into
21175-675: The largest province by GDP since 1989 in Mainland China . Its GDP exceeded that of Australia ($ 1.70 trillion) and South Korea ($ 1.67 trillion), the world's 12th and 13th largest economy , respectively. If it was a country, Guangdong would be the 12th-largest economy as of 2022 and the 11th most populous . Compared to country subdivisions in dollar terms, Guangdong's GDP in nominal is larger than all but four country subdivisions : California , Texas , New York State , and England . Compared to country subdivisions in PPP terms, Guangdong's GDP
21350-528: The late 19th century. Today Japanese is written with a composite script using both Chinese characters called kanji , and kana. Korean is written exclusively with hangul in North Korea, although knowledge of the supplementary Chinese characters called hanja is still required, and hanja are increasingly rarely used in South Korea. As a result of its historical colonization by France, Vietnamese now uses
21525-426: The local party boss Fang Fang tried to moderate Chinese land reform policy in order to protect successful businesses in the Pearl River Delta , landholdings by overseas Chinese seeking to eventually return to the country, and commercial relations with British Hong Kong . In response Mao Zedong purged Fang and thousands of cadres from the province in 1952, sending Tao Zhu to implement a much harsher program under
21700-536: The middle Yangtze River area (Jiao 2013). In inland Guangdong, the neolithic appeared in Guangdong 4,600 years before present (BP). The Neolithic in northern inland Guangdong is represented by the Shixia culture ( 石峽文化 ), which occurred from 4600 to 4200 BP (c. 2650–2250 BC). Originally inhabited by a mixture of tribal groups known to the Chinese as the Baiyue ("Hundred Yue"), the region first became part of China during
21875-455: The more conservative modern varieties, usually found in the south, have largely monosyllabic words , especially with basic vocabulary. However, most nouns, adjectives, and verbs in modern Mandarin are disyllabic. A significant cause of this is phonetic erosion : sound changes over time have steadily reduced the number of possible syllables in the language's inventory. In modern Mandarin, there are only around 1,200 possible syllables, including
22050-554: The most populous first-level administrative subdivision of any country outside South Asia . The vast majority of the historical Guangdong Province is administered by the People's Republic of China (PRC). Pratas Island in the South China Sea is part of Cijin District , Kaohsiung , Taiwan (ROC); the island was part of Guangdong Province before the Chinese Civil War . After the unification of Lingnan region during
22225-425: The mutual unintelligibility between them is too great. However, calling major Chinese branches "languages" would also be wrong under the same criterion, since a branch such as Wu, itself contains many mutually unintelligible varieties, and could not be properly called a single language. There are also viewpoints pointing out that linguists often ignore mutual intelligibility when varieties share intelligibility with
22400-583: The nasal sonorant consonants /m/ and /ŋ/ can stand alone as their own syllable. In Mandarin much more than in other spoken varieties, most syllables tend to be open syllables, meaning they have no coda (assuming that a final glide is not analyzed as a coda), but syllables that do have codas are restricted to nasals /m/ , /n/ , /ŋ/ , the retroflex approximant /ɻ/ , and voiceless stops /p/ , /t/ , /k/ , or /ʔ/ . Some varieties allow most of these codas, whereas others, such as Standard Chinese, are limited to only /n/ , /ŋ/ , and /ɻ/ . The number of sounds in
22575-605: The original foreign language by way of Cantonese. For example, the Mandarin word níngméng ( simplified Chinese : 柠檬 ; traditional Chinese : 檸檬 ), meaning "Lemon", came from Cantonese, in which the characters are pronounced as lìng mung . In the United States, there is a large number of Chinese who are descendants of immigrants from the county-level city of Taishan (Toisan in Cantonese), who speak
22750-538: The other varieties within the same branch (e.g. Southern Min). There are, however, transitional areas where varieties from different branches share enough features for some limited intelligibility, including New Xiang with Southwestern Mandarin , Xuanzhou Wu Chinese with Lower Yangtze Mandarin , Jin with Central Plains Mandarin and certain divergent dialects of Hakka with Gan . All varieties of Chinese are tonal at least to some degree, and are largely analytic . The earliest attested written Chinese consists of
22925-478: The population is either irreligious or may be involved in Chinese folk religion worshipping nature gods, ancestral deities , popular sects , Taoist traditions , Buddhist religious traditions & Confucian religious traditions . According to a survey conducted in 2007, 43.71% of the population believes and is involved in ancestor veneration , the traditional Chinese religion of the lineages organised into lineage churches and ancestral shrines . Guangdong
23100-415: The province include Chaozhou , Chenghai , Nanhai , Shantou , Shaoguan , Zhanjiang , Zhaoqing , Yangjiang , and Yunfu . Guangdong has a humid subtropical climate ( Köppen Cfa inland, Cwa along the coast). Winters are short, mild, and relatively dry, while summers are long, hot, and very wet. Average daily highs in Guangzhou in January and July are 18 and 33 °C (64 and 91 °F), although
23275-617: The provincial capital Guangzhou . Historically, Canton was also used for the province itself, but often either specified as a province (e.g. Canton Province), or written as Kwangtung in the Wade–Giles system and now most commonly as Guangdong in Pinyin . The local people of the city of Guangzhou (Canton) and their language are called Cantonese in English. Because of the prestige of Canton and its accent, Cantonese can also be used, in
23450-407: The purpose of economic development. The zone would be managed by Shenzhen and another Cantonese city, Shanwei . The zone is under the jurisdiction of Shenzhen instead of Shantou, with residents living there considered to be permanent residents of Shenzhen. The Shenzhen government later established two new districts on 27 October 2011, Longhua New District and Dapeng New District . With approval of
23625-471: The rate of change varies immensely. Generally, mountainous South China exhibits more linguistic diversity than the North China Plain . Until the late 20th century, Chinese emigrants to Southeast Asia and North America came from southeast coastal areas, where Min, Hakka, and Yue dialects were spoken. Specifically, most Chinese immigrants to North America until the mid-20th century spoke Taishanese ,
23800-542: The rebellion of An Lushan resulted in a 75% increase in the population of Guangzhou prefecture between the 740s–750s and 800s–810s. As more migrants arrived, the local population was gradually assimilated to Han Chinese culture or displaced. As Mongols from the north engaged in their conquest of China in the 13th century, the Southern Song court fled southwards from its capital in Hangzhou . The defeat of
23975-503: The region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name " Guang " ultimately came from Guangxin ( 廣信 ; 广信 ), an outpost established in Han dynasty near modern Wuzhou , whose name is a reference to an order by Emperor Wu of Han to "widely bestow favors and sow trust". Together, Guangdong and Guangxi are called Loeng gwong ( 兩廣 ; 两广 ; liǎng guǎng ) During the Song dynasty,
24150-552: The related subject dropping . Although the grammars of the spoken varieties share many traits, they do possess differences. The entire Chinese character corpus since antiquity comprises well over 50,000 characters, of which only roughly 10,000 are in use and only about 3,000 are frequently used in Chinese media and newspapers. However, Chinese characters should not be confused with Chinese words. Because most Chinese words are made up of two or more characters, there are many more Chinese words than characters. A more accurate equivalent for
24325-509: The relationship was first proposed in the early 19th century and is now broadly accepted, reconstruction of Sino-Tibetan is much less developed than that of families such as Indo-European or Austroasiatic . Difficulties have included the great diversity of the languages, the lack of inflection in many of them, and the effects of language contact. In addition, many of the smaller languages are spoken in mountainous areas that are difficult to reach and are often also sensitive border zones. Without
24500-519: The same figure was 16,000 in 1991. Around the same time, Shenzhen hosted the second Senior Officials' Meeting of APEC China 2001 on 26 May 2001 in its southern manufacturing center and port. In May 2008, the State Council approved the Shenzhen SEZ to promote Shenzhen's administrative management system, economic system, social field, independent innovation system and mechanism, system and mechanism for opening up and regional cooperation, and resource conservation and environmental friendliness. On 1 July 2010
24675-485: The seat based in Luohu. In October 1981, Bao'an County was re-established, with its region now based outside Shenzhen. In June 1983, the districts were dissolved and re-established instead as five management areas ( 管理区 ): Shekou ( 蛇口 ; south-west Shenzhen), Nantou ( 南头 ; west Shenzhen), Shangbu ( 上步 ; central Shenzhen), Luohu ( 罗湖 ; east-central Shenzhen), and Shatoujiao ( 沙头角 ; far-east Shenzhen). To enforce law and order in
24850-565: The second line border are referred to as guannei ( 关内 ; 'within the border') while districts that are outside the second line and do not have special economic privileges such as Bao'an and Longgang are referred to as guanwai ( 关外 ; 'outside the border'). The Shenzhen government later established two new districts as part of the guanwai : Guangming New District in August 2007 and Pingshan New District in June 2009. On 1 July 2010,
25025-457: The second line border was dissolved, and the Shenzhen SEZ was expanded to cover the entire city. Therefore, the four guanwai districts Bao'an District, Longgang District, Guangming New District, and Pingshan New District, would be given special economic privileges like the guannei districts. The area of the Shenzhen SEZ also increased from 396 square kilometres (153 sq mi) to 1,953 square kilometres (754 sq mi). Since June 2015,
25200-624: The second line border. At this point, Shenzhen has five districts: Luohu, Futian, Nanshan, Bao'an, and Longgang. In March 1998, Shenzhen's government created the Yantian District from the eastern portions of the Luohu District (the original area of the Shatoujiao Management District), and within the second line border. Yantian, Luohu, Futian, and Nanshan together as the special economic districts within
25375-463: The six official languages of the United Nations . Standard Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin and was first officially adopted in the 1930s. The language is written primarily using a logography of Chinese characters , largely shared by readers who may otherwise speak mutually unintelligible varieties. Since the 1950s, the use of simplified characters has been promoted by
25550-511: The slightly later Menggu Ziyun , this dictionary describes a language with many of the features characteristic of modern Mandarin dialects. Up to the early 20th century, most Chinese people only spoke their local variety. Thus, as a practical measure, officials of the Ming and Qing dynasties carried out the administration of the empire using a common language based on Mandarin varieties , known as 官话 ; 官話 ; Guānhuà ; 'language of officials'. For most of this period, this language
25725-451: The slogan "Every Village Bleeds, Every Household Fights." During Reform and Opening Up , Guangdong was supported by the central government to be "one step ahead" of the rest of the country. Most major cities in Guangdong underwent liberalizing economic reforms in the mid-1980s. Since Reform and Opening Up, the province has seen extremely rapid economic growth, aided in part by its close trading links with Hong Kong , which borders it. It
25900-556: The south. Hainan is offshore across from the Leizhou Peninsula . Pratas Island , which were traditionally governed as part of Guangdong, are part of Cijin District , Kaoshiung , Taiwan (ROC). The PRC continues to claim Pratas Island as part of Guangdong under the district of Chengqu, Shanwei . Cities around the Pearl River Delta include Dongguan , Foshan , Guangzhou , Huizhou , Jiangmen , Shenzhen , Shunde , Taishan , Zhongshan , and Zhuhai . Other cities in
26075-510: The strike committee to create a blockade around Hong Kong. In 1931 Chen Jitang and his family established several casinos in Shenzhen, the largest of which being Shumchun Casino. During World War II , the Japanese occupied Shenzhen and Nantou , forcing the Bao'an County government to relocate to the neighboring Dongguan County. In 1941, the Japanese army tried to cross into Hong Kong through
26250-504: The ten largest economies in the world. Shenzhen also has the eighth most competitive and largest financial center in the world, the seventh-most Fortune Global 500 headquarters, fifth-highest number of billionaires , the second largest number of skyscrapers , the 19th largest scientific research output , and several higher education institutions , including Shenzhen University , Southern University of Science and Technology , and Shenzhen Technology University . Shenzhen railway station
26425-435: The third largest in China. Shenzhen is one of the world's top ten financial centers as of 2019, jumping five places to ninth place as determined by "variety of areas of competitiveness, including business environment, human capital, infrastructure, financial sector development and reputation." SF Express and China International Marine Containers (CIMC) have their headquarters in Shenzhen. The Port of Shenzhen comprises
26600-422: The third-most in China after (Beijing and Shanghai) within its city limits. Shenzhen's industry is described by its Municipal Bureau of Statistics to be upheld by its four-pillar industries: high tech , finance , logistics , and culture . Shenzhen is a large hub of the Chinese and global technology industry and home to a large startup ecosystem. As of 2020 the city was ranked as the 4th Fintech powerhouse in
26775-437: The thriving town each erecting their own houses of worship. A foreign quarter sprang up along the river where many traders of diverse backgrounds including Arabs and Singhalese took up residence. The port's importance declined after it was raided by Arabs and Persians in 758 and the foreign residents were at times troubled by the corrupt local officials, sometimes responding violently. During one incident in 684, for example,
26950-568: The tonal distinctions, compared with about 5,000 in Vietnamese (still a largely monosyllabic language), and over 8,000 in English. Most modern varieties tend to form new words through polysyllabic compounds . In some cases, monosyllabic words have become disyllabic formed from different characters without the use of compounding, as in 窟窿 ; kūlong from 孔 ; kǒng ; this is especially common in Jin varieties. This phonological collapse has led to
27125-599: The total national economic output. Now, it has three of the six Special Economic Zones : Shenzhen , Shantou and Zhuhai . The affluence of Guangdong, however, remains very concentrated near the Pearl River Delta . Guangdong officially became the most populous province in 2005. Official statistics had traditionally placed Guangdong as the fourth-most populous province of China with about 80 million people, though an influx of migrants, temporary workers, and newly settled individuals numbered around 30 million. The massive influx of migrants from other provinces, dubbed
27300-547: The traditional Western notion of a word. A Chinese cí can consist of more than one character–morpheme, usually two, but there can be three or more. Examples of Chinese words of more than two syllables include 汉堡包 ; 漢堡包 ; hànbǎobāo ; 'hamburger', 守门员 ; 守門員 ; shǒuményuán ; 'goalkeeper', and 电子邮件 ; 電子郵件 ; diànzǐyóujiàn ; 'e-mail'. All varieties of modern Chinese are analytic languages : they depend on syntax (word order and sentence structure), rather than inflectional morphology (changes in
27475-512: The use of tones in Chinese is the application of the four tones of Standard Chinese, along with the neutral tone, to the syllable ma . The tones are exemplified by the following five Chinese words: In contrast, Standard Cantonese has six tones. Historically, finals that end in a stop consonant were considered to be " checked tones " and thus counted separately for a total of nine tones. However, they are considered to be duplicates in modern linguistics and are no longer counted as such: Chinese
27650-452: The words in newspapers, and 60% of the words in science magazines. Vietnam, Korea, and Japan each developed writing systems for their own languages, initially based on Chinese characters , but later replaced with the hangul alphabet for Korean and supplemented with kana syllabaries for Japanese, while Vietnamese continued to be written with the complex chữ Nôm script. However, these were limited to popular literature until
27825-472: The world. In the 2021 Global Financial Centres Index , Shenzhen was ranked as having the 8th most competitive and largest financial center in the world and 6th in Asia & Oceania region (after Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing, and Tokyo). As of 2020, Shenzhen is ranked as an Alpha- ( global first-tier ) city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network . According to Forbes , Shenzhen has
28000-648: The world. In 1913, the Republic of China administration renamed Xin'an County back to Bao'an County to prevent confusion from another county of the same name in Henan Province. During the Canton–Hong Kong strike , the All-China Federation of Trade Unions set up a reception station for strike workers in Hong Kong in Shenzhen. Strike workers were also given pickets and armored vehicles by
28175-514: The world. Shenzhen is primarily known for its high-tech industry, which has a value of 585.491 billion RMB (US$ 82.9 billion) in 2015, a 13 percent increase compared to last year. Out of the nominal GDP of 1,750.299 billion RMB in 2015 the high-tech industry generated 33.4 percent. Shenzhen is home to a number of prominent tech firms, such as Huawei , Tencent , DJI , and ZTE . Other tech firms include personal computer manufacturer Hasee , Hytera , OnePlus , and BYD Company . Shenzhen annually holds
28350-408: The written language used throughout China changed comparatively little, crystallizing into a prestige form known as Classical or Literary Chinese . Literature written distinctly in the Classical form began to emerge during the Spring and Autumn period . Its use in writing remained nearly universal until the late 19th century, culminating with the widespread adoption of written vernacular Chinese with
28525-424: Was 4,472,200, the actual administrative population was over 20 million. It makes up part of the Pearl River Delta built-up area with 44,738,513 inhabitants, spread over 9 municipalities (including Macau ). The city is elongated measuring 81.4 kilometers from east to west while the shortest section from north to south is 10.8 kilometers. Over 160 rivers or channels flow through Shenzhen. There are 24 reservoirs within
28700-453: Was a koiné based on dialects spoken in the Nanjing area, though not identical to any single dialect. By the middle of the 19th century, the Beijing dialect had become dominant and was essential for any business with the imperial court. In the 1930s, a standard national language ( 国语 ; 國語 ; Guóyǔ ), was adopted. After much dispute between proponents of northern and southern dialects and an abortive attempt at an artificial pronunciation,
28875-419: Was also from Guangdong. During the early 1920s of the Republic of China , Guangdong was the staging area for the Kuomintang (KMT) to prepare for the Northern Expedition , an effort to bring the various warlords of China back under a unified central government. The Whampoa Military Academy was built near Guangzhou to train military commanders. At the end of the Chinese Civil War Guangdong became one of
29050-433: Was hidden by their written form. Often different compounds for the same concept were in circulation for some time before a winner emerged, and sometimes the final choice differed between countries. The proportion of vocabulary of Chinese origin thus tends to be greater in technical, abstract, or formal language. For example, in Japan, Sino-Japanese words account for about 35% of the words in entertainment magazines, over half
29225-425: Was incorporated into Dongguan in 1669. After the Qing dynasty was defeated by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in the First Opium War and the Second Opium Wars , Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula were ceded to the British in the Treaty of Nanking and the Convention of Peking . On 21 April 1898 the Qing government signed a "Special Article for the Exhibition of Hong Kong's Borders" with
29400-433: Was known as the starting point of ancient China's Maritime Silk Road . It is home to the production facilities and offices of a wide-ranging set of Chinese and foreign corporations. Guangdong has benefited from its proximity to the financial hub of Hong Kong , which it borders to the south. Guangdong also hosts the largest import and export fair in China, the Canton Fair , in Guangzhou. The Pearl River Delta Economic Zone ,
29575-429: Was led by Hong Kong-based China Merchants Group under Yuan Geng 's leadership and was to become the first export processing industrial zone in mainland China. At the beginning of April 1979, the Standing Committee of Guangdong Province discussed and proposed to the Central Committee to set up a "trade cooperation zone" in Shenzhen, Zhuhai , and Shantou . In the same month, the Central Working Conference decided on
29750-430: Was named after a deep ( Chinese : 深 ; lit. 'deep') drain that was located within the area." The oldest evidence of humans in the area on which Shenzhen was established dates back during the mid- Neolithic period. Human have inhabited the area throughout the past 6,700 years. Historic counties were first established in the area 1,700 years ago. The historic towns of Nantou and Dapeng , were built on
29925-400: Was one of the first provinces to receive permission from the central government to receive foreign investment. In addition, until the 1990s when the Chinese taxation system was reformed, the province benefited from the relatively low rate of taxation placed on it by the central government due to its post-Liberation status of being economically backward. Guangdong's economic boom began with
30100-417: Was reformed as a Special Export Zone to create a favorable investment environment and introduce advanced technology and management experience, later renamed to Special Economic Zone in May 1980. As of 2022, Shenzhen has a nominal GDP of 3.24 trillion RMB (HK$ 2.87 trillion), which surpassed neighboring Hong Kong 's GDP of HK$ 2.11 trillion and Guangzhou 's GDP of 2.88 trillion RMB (HK$ 2.68 trillion), making
30275-581: Was the last stop on the mainland Chinese section of the Kowloon–Canton Railway . The city is a leading global technology hub. In the media Shenzhen is sometimes called China's Silicon Valley . The city's entrepreneurial, innovative, and competitive-based culture has resulted in the city being home to numerous small manufacturers and software companies. Several of these firms have become large technology corporations, such as Huawei , Tencent , and DJI . As an important international city, Shenzhen hosts numerous national and international events every year, such as
30450-459: Was then a Portuguese colony , Hong Kong was ceded to the British, and Kouang-Tchéou-Wan (modern day area of Zhanjiang ) to the French . Due to the large number of people that emigrated out of the Guangdong province, and in particular the ease of immigration from Hong Kong to other parts of the British Empire (later British Commonwealth ), many overseas Chinese communities have their origins in Guangdong and/or Cantonese culture. In particular,
30625-625: Was used as a gateway for traders from the west—as far away as the Roman Empire. Under the Wu Kingdom of the Three Kingdoms period, Guangdong was made its own province, the Guang Province, in 226 CE. Canton was a prosperous port city along a tropical frontier region beset by disease and wild animals, but rich in oranges, banyan , bananas, and lychee fruits. They traded slaves, silk and chinaware with Persians , Brahmans and Malays in exchange for their renowned medicines and fragrant tropical woods. Shi'a Muslims who had fled persecution in Khorasan and Buddhists from India lived side by side in
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