[14] In the late 1990s and early 2000s, nationals of sub-Saharan Africa who had initially settled in the Middle East and Southeast Asia moved in unprecedented numbers to Guangzhou in response to the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis.

[48] Archeological evidence shows that Panyu was an expansive commercial center: in addition to items from central China, archeologists have found remains originating from Southeast Asia, India, and even Africa.

Emperor Wu of Han took offense and launched a massive riverine and seaborne war: six armies under Lu Bode and Yang Pu[51] took Panyu and annexed Nanyue by the end of 111 BC.

[52] Direct routes connected the Middle East and China, as shown in the records of a Chinese prisoner returning home from Iraq twelve years after his capture at Talas.

[68] Shortly after the Hongwu Emperor's declaration of the Ming dynasty, he reversed his earlier support of foreign trade and imposed the first of a series of sea bans (海禁).

[70] Previous maritime intendancies of Guangzhou, Quanzhou, and Ningbo were closed in 1384[71] and legal trade became limited to the tribute delegations sent to or by official representatives of foreign governments.

[81][82] The Guangzhou administration was charged with driving them off:[78] they bested the Portuguese at the Battle of Tunmen[83] and in Xicao Bay; held a diplomatic mission hostage in a failed attempt to pressure the restoration of the sultan of Malacca,[84] who had been accounted a Ming vassal;[85] and, after placing them in cangues and keeping them for most of a year, ultimately executed 23 by lingchi.

[86] With the help of local pirates,[81] the "Folangji" then carried out smuggling at Macao, Lampacau, and St John's Island (now Shangchuan),[77] until Leonel de Sousa legalized their trade with bribes to Admiral Wang Bo (汪柏) and the 1554 Luso-Chinese Accord.

[91] He led a successful offense against his cousin Zhu Youlang but was deposed and executed on January 20, 1647, when the Ming turncoat Li Chengdong (李成棟) sacked the city on behalf of the Qing.

The wall rose to incorporate a hill on its northern side and was surrounded on the other three by a moat which, along with the canals, functioned as the city's sewer, emptied daily by the river's tides.

Amid the decline of Qing prestige and the chaos of the Red Turban Rebellion (1854–1856), the Punti and Hakka waged a series of clan wars from 1855 to 1867 in which one million people died.

It completed its branch line west to Foshan and Sanshui before being engulfed in a diplomatic crisis after a Belgian consortium bought a controlling interest and the Qing subsequently canceled its concession.

After the assassination of Song Jiaoren and Yuan Shikai's attempts to remove the Nationalist Party of China from power, the leader of Guangdong Hu Hanmin joined the 1913 Second Revolution against him[107] but was forced to flee to Japan with Sun Yat-sen after its failure.

Although Sun was previously dependent on opportunistic warlords who hosted him in the city, with the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek, the KMT developed its own military power to serve its ambition.

The "Canton Coup" on March 20, 1926, saw Chiang solidify his control over the Nationalists and their army against Wang Jingwei, the party's left wing, its Communist allies, and its Soviet advisors.

Immediately afterwards Canton joined the purge under the auspice of Li Jishen, resulting in the arrest of communists and the suspension of left wing KMT apparatuses and labor groups.

Since the 1980s, the city's close proximity to Hong Kong and Shenzhen and its ties to overseas Chinese made it one of the first beneficiaries of China's opening up under Deng Xiaoping.

The National People's Congress approved a development plan for the Pearl River Delta in January 2009; on March 19 of the same year, the Guangzhou and Foshan municipal governments agreed to establish a framework to merge the two cities.

Guangzhou ranks 10th in the world and 5th in China (after Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Shenzhen) in terms of the number of billionaires according to the Hurun Global Rich List 2020.

In a 2018 report study by Shan Yunming and Li Sheng, the report showed that 90% of people living in Guangzhou are bilingual in both Cantonese and Mandarin, though fluency will vary depending on if they are locally born to the city and the surrounding Guangdong province or migrants from other provinces, which shows how much importance the Cantonese language still has in the city despite the strict policy rules from the government to be using Mandarin as the country's official language.

[167] but like elsewhere in the People's Republic of China, the household registration system (hukou) limits migrants' access to residences, educational institutions and other public benefits.

[168] In May 2014, legally employed migrants in Guangzhou were permitted to receive a hukou card allowing them to marry and obtain permission for their pregnancies in the city, rather than having to return to their official hometowns as previously.

Demographically, the only significant immigration into China has been by overseas Chinese, but Guangzhou sees many foreign tourists, workers, and residents from the usual locations such as the United States.

[181] In 2009, it was reported that all 9,424 buses and 17,695 taxis in Guangzhou would be operating on LPG-fuel by 2010 to promote clean energy for transport and improve the environment ahead of the 2010 Asian Games which were held in the city.

[193] Notable aspects of Cantonese cultural heritage include: The Guangzhou Opera House and Symphony Orchestra also perform classical Western music and Chinese compositions in their style.

Around AD 520, Emperor Wu of the Liang ordered the construction of the Baozhuangyan Temple and the Xilai Monastery to store the relics of Cambodian Buddhist saints which had been brought to the city and to house the monks beginning to assemble there.

The Ocean Banner Temple on Henan Island, once famous in the west as the only tourist spot in Guangzhou accessible to foreigners, has been reopened as the Hoi Tong Monastery.

[201][specify] The Qing-era ban on foreigners limited missionaries until it was abolished following the First Opium War, although the Protestant Robert Morrison was able to perform some work through his service with the British factory.

The following modern list was chosen through public appraisal in 2011:[citation needed] Guangzhou attracts more than 223 million visitors each year, and the total revenue of the tourism exceeded 400 billion in 2018.

[211] As of June 2023, Guangzhou hosts 84 institutions of higher education (excluding adult colleges), ranking 2nd nationwide after Beijing and 1st in South China region.