Guangzhou has a few beautiful and legendary nick names, Huacheng (the Flower City), Yangcheng (the Goat City) and Suicheng (the Rice-ear City). Guangzhou is a civilized ancient city. It is 2,100 years old, the same ages as the world-renowned ancient cultural city Rome of Italy. A modern city in China, Guang-zhou is the political, economic, edu-cational, cultural as well as scientific and technological center in South China. It is also a tourist city. Being a big city, Guangzhou totals 7475 square kilometers with a popu-lation of some 6.56 million. 
Under its administration are four county-level cities of Huadu, Conghua, Zengcheng and Panyu and eight districts: Yuexiu, Dongshan, Haizhu, Litchi, Tianhe, Baiyun, Fangcun and Whampu. It is a well-known hometown of the overseas Chinese. About 500,000 countrymen from here are residing in some 90 countries and regions abroad. 
Guangzhou is situated in the south of China with the Baiyun Hill in the north and the Zhujiang (the Pearl River) Delta Plain in front, Three rivers, the Dong-jiang, Xijiang and Beijiang converge here. The Zhujiang passes through the city. With rivers and mountains,its geological location is very advantageous.