The city of Guangzhou is situated in Guangdong Province, around 1,900 kilometres south of China’s capital, Beijing, and around 150 kilometres northwest of Hong Kong, with the Tropic of Cancer running through the province. Guangdong is one of 23 Chinese provinces; however, it was not until the reforms brought about by Deng Xiaoping in 1978 that Guangdong started to come to the fore economically. For many outside of China the name of the province is not immediately familiar, but the French derivation, Canton Province will be. The province is bordered by the autonomous region of Guangxi Zhuang to the west, the provinces of Hunan and Jiangxi to the north and the province of Fujian to the east. The southern coastline is bounded by the South China Sea. Guangzhou is the provincial capital city is located on the Pearl River: around 11 million people populate the metropolitan area. The city is home to the Chinese Export Commodities Fair (CECF), which since 1957 biannually has been a world-class showcase for China’s businesses and industries.

Despite the outbreaks of avian flu and SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), the economy of the province shows a healthy growth. An indication of the speed of growth is that China’s richest woman has made her fortune since setting up a paper factory in the province. The economy of the region is quite diverse and not reliant on a single or limited number of sources. Agriculture and fishing play their role with an abundance of rice crops, fruit and sugarcane and also modern freshwater fisheries. The region has rich mineral resources available such iron, copper, coal and limestone. Industry is also varied in the province from computers to shipbuilding and food processing to petrochemicals.

Four of China’s nine nuclear power plants are in Guangdong province, located on the coast around 160 kilometres south east of Guangzhou.

Transportation around Guangzhou is made relatively easy by a modern system of buses and underground trains; the metro system has four lines; the first of which opened in the late 1990s, and the fourth in December 2005. Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport is the province’s chief air transport hub and is the second airport to bear the name, replacing its 72-year-old predecessor in mid-2004. The airport just over 30 kilometres to the north of the city and connects Guangdong to most locations in Asia directly and non-stop flights to some European cities such as Amsterdam and Paris.

The Mercer Human Resource Cost of Living Survey 2006 ranks Guangzhou in 54th position out of 144 cities world wide, with a score of 81.5. New York is the median for the index in 10th place (100), with Moscow is in 1st place (123.9). Of the 5 Chinese cities (not including Hong Kong) in the survey, Guangzhou was in 4th place with Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen were 14th, 20th and 44th places respectively. Only Tianjin in the northeast of the country in 128th place has a lower cost of living.

According to the real estate advisory company CB Richard Ellis in 2006, prime office rent in Guangzhou stands at US$242 per square metre per annum, comparing favourably with its Chinese and Asian counterparts. The occupancy cost in Shanghai and Beijing was US$483 and US$407 respectively, Mumbai US$1,002 and Tokyo US$1,400.