The name alluded to the city's historical setting as the start of the Maritime Silk Road and the tower's geographical proximity to Haixinsha Island.

After surveying a broad range of public opinions, "Canton Tower" was decided as the official English name and announced at the end of September 2010.

The new English name, which alludes to the city's prosperous past, was considered the most identifying and least ambiguous among the multitude of proposals.

[11][20] The tower, although not fully completed, opened to the public on 1 October 2010 in time for the 16th Asian Games, hosted by Guangzhou in November 2010.

[10][11] The zone from 80 to 170 m (260 to 560 ft) consists of a 4D cinema, a play-hall area, restaurants, coffee shops and outdoor gardens with teahouses.

[10][11][26] The top zone of the tower begins above the stairway, housing various technical functions as well as a two-story rotating restaurant, a tuned mass damper and the upper observation levels.

[10][11][12] The form, volume and structure of the towers is generated by two ellipses, one at foundation level and the other at a horizontal plane at 450 m (1,480 ft).

[10][11][12] The indoor public observatory is 449 m above the ground, which takes the form of a terraced elliptical space, roughly half the size of a standard football field.

[28] Sixteen transparent "crystal" passenger cars, each with a diameter of 3.2 m (10 ft) and able to carry four to six people, travel on a track round the edge of the tower's roof, taking between 20 and 40 minutes to circumnavigate the rooftop.

Lighting designer Rogier van der Heide is known for this concept, which he also applied at the Marunouchi Building in Tokyo.

Each node in the lighting design is individually controllable to allow for animations and color changes across the entire height of the tower.

Additionally, several famous landmarks surround the tower, including pagodas, a park towards the south, and several high-rise apartments, buildings, and skyscrapers, both commercial and residential.