Located only 75 miles east of Hongkong and right next to Shenzhen, Guangzhou is the third largest city in China and one of the largest trading capitals of the world. Hosting the population of a medium sized country (13 million), its a city that never sleeps. Historically, Guangzhou (also known as Canton) emerged as one of the world’s great trading ports during the middle of the 18th century. It was a meeting place for merchants from all over the world and the trade in Canton was one of the major contributors to the rise of the modern global economy.
Guangzhou is still a major player in world trade and Chinas largest and most comprehensive trade fair, the Canton fair, is held here twice a year. To read more about trade fairs in Guangzhou, please click here.
The port of Guangzhou
With one of China’s largest trading ports just a few miles outside the city, shipping goods from Guangzhou is extremely convenient. The Guangzhou port is the worlds 8th busiest port, and is right next to Hong Kong who has the worlds 4th busiest ports and Shenzhen who has the 3rd busiest port in the world. Its international maritime trade reaches over 300 ports in more than 80 countries and districts worldwide.
It comprises 4600 berths, 133 buoys and 2359 anchorages, with some berths being able to vessels of 100 000 tons and the largest ones being able to handle vessels of more that 300 000 tons.
In 2013 the Guangzhou port reached 15.31 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units)!
Guangzhou Baiyun international airport
Located about 30 min from the center of Guangzhou, the Baiyun airport makes travelling and shipping goods to/from Guangzhou extremely convenient. Now, you can actually ride the metro subway directly from any of the city’s numerous metro stations straight into the airport!
The airport is the 15th most busiest airport in the world for passenger traffic and offers direct flights to almost any destination. As for cargo traffic, the Baiyun international airport is the third busiest airport in China and top 20 in the world. The airport is constantly expanding and is planned to be able to handle a cargo capacity of 2.5 millions tonnes in 2018.
The Guangzhou metro
Guangzhou’s metro station is fairly new. It did not officially open until 1997 with no more than one line with 5 stations.
Today, almost 20 years later, the Guangzhou metro has nine lines in operation with 167 stations and is now the sixth busiest metro system in the world. Its constantly expanding and 3 new lines are under construction and expected to be completed before 2017 with lines extending as far as to Foshan city.
Today, Line 3 can take you all the way from the city of Shiqiao in Panyu straight into Baiyun airport. The length of this one line is more than 70km, making it the longest underground transit system line in the world. The metro system in Guangzhou is very clean, modern, and by far the most convenient way of travelling here. For an high res map of the metro stations in English, click here.