The Pearl River Delta attracted foreign traders from Rome and India
as early as the 2nd century A.D. Guangdong Province is home to the Cantonese
people, who constitute 80% of "overseas" Chinese. It is also the birthplace
of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, the "father" of modern China. Portuguese merchants
established a trading base on the Macau peninsula in 1557; the British
introduced opium to Guangzhou in 1773 to shift the balance of trade in
their favor. Hong Kong and the Kowloon peninsula became the center of British
activities following the treaty of Nanking (which ended the Opium Wars).
Hong Kong was returned to Chinese control in 1997, Macau in 1999, with
the promise of "no changes" for fifty years. Thus, the people there refer
to "one country, two systems." |
|
|
|
View of colonial buildings in Macau.
|
Facade of St. Paul's Cathedral is all that remains.
|
|
|
Government buildings were pink.
|
Who's that in the square?
|
|
|
Oldest lighthouse (1865) on the China coast.
|
View from Guia Fort.
|
Ah Ma Temple
|
|