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Guangzhou Presentation Slide One (Overview) Located in Southern China on the Pearl or Canton/Guangdong River Situated not far from Hong Kong Location near the mouth of the Pearl River at the South China Sea made the city an important destination for sea traders Guangzhou was a busy city during the post-classical period and has continued to grow o Today the city is a bustling metropolis with 12.8 million people (China’s 6th Largest City) Slide Two (History) Recorded history of the city began after the Qin dynasty conquered the region Eventually annexed by the Han Dynasty o Became the governmental seat of the Guang Prefecture (administrative district within China – Similar to counties) o Held political significance in the region of Southern China for centuries City reached its prominence during the Tang Dynasty in the 8th Century o Arab and Persian merchants began to appear in the city Continued to a critical port for Chinese traders through the Song Dynasty o Was not as prominent politically during this time as most of the government was situated farther to the North (Loyang – Sui Capital, Hangzhou – Southern Song Dynasty) Slide Three (Arab/Persian Cultural Influence) Sea faring merchants arrived in the 8th century eager to do business with the prospering Tang Dynasty o Their migration altered the culture of the city by making it almost exclusively a city focused and designed for international sea trade Multiple Muslim geographers mentioned Guangzhou in their works describing SE Asia and China o Al-Masudi Persian women immigrated to Guangzhou in great numbers from the 10th-14th centuries o They populated the city’s foreign quarter o Chinese scholars did not differentiate between Persians and Arabs Called all women coming from the Persian Gulf region Dashi Title means master which suggests that Arab and Persian females possessed a greater amount of influence in Guangzhou than other women in the traditional Chinese culture did throughout the Empire Slide Four (Guangzhou Massacre) By the end of the 9th Century, the Tang Dynasty began to collapse in China Many Chinese peasants blamed this collapse on the deteriorating economic system in the Empire o Looked for a scapegoat and found wealthy foreign merchants and traders o Peasants felt that the foreigners (mainly Arabs/Persians but even Christians and Jews too) were accumulating their fortunes by stealing from the economic prosperity of their people Huang Choa o Hope to cause chaos within the already deteriorating Tang Dynasty by slaughtering the foreign merchants in Guangzhou o Already hated the Tang Dynasty after failing the Imperial Examination several times and therefore being denied an imperial government position Massacre occurred in 879 C.E. o Around 120,000 foreigners were killed (most of the foreign population in the city) Slide Five (Economic Role) Major center of trade o Good location since it was the closest Chinese port to SE Asia (Areas in SE Asia like Malacca were bustling with sea trade and Guangzhou was close to the action) o Located near the end of the Silk Route Title given to the trade routes from China, through SE Asia, past India and finally reaching the Middle East Goods were even sent from Guangzhou by sea to Northern China where they were shipped across land on the Silk Road o Exported Chinese silk, spices, and even ceramics Direct ocean trade routes connected the Middle East to China o Example of a Chinese POW who was captured in battle and confined in Iraq for years and was able to returned to China on a ship which went all the way from the Middle East to Guangzhou Although the city was located on a river delta, there was not much agricultural interests in Guangzhou apart from exporting crops from other regions in China Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta came to Guangzhou in the 14th century o Recounted the large industry of manufacturing ships in the city (main industry in Guangzhou) o This industry was ideal for a city which had a large market of sea-faring merchants who would be in need of ocean going vessels