Guangzhou

Guangzhou (Zhonghuanese: 广州), or the Municipality of Guangzhou is the largest city and capital of Zhonghua. It is one of the largest cities on Kobol with a municipal population of 26 million. Guangzhou is a Municipality with ??? districts. The Municipality is located within the heavily urbanised Pearl River Delta, in the south coast of Zhonghua.

Guangzhou is an alpha world city. Guangzhou is Zhonghua's political, economic, cultural and educational centre, being the hub for most national transport networks.

Once a fishing and textiles town, Guangzhou grew in importance in the 15th century due to its favourable port location and was one of the cities opened to foreign trade by the 1495 Treaty of Zhonghua. The city then flourished as a centre of commerce between east and west, and became a multinational hub of finance and business from the 1830s.

History

Guangzhou has a long history spanning many centuries but it only until 1755 has it been a capital city.

The first evidence of a city in what is modern Guangzhou dates back to the Yang Dynasty (1066 - 1231), it was called ????, named after ????. It was only a small trading port with connections to most of Orientia.

Geography

Climate

Guangzhou has a humid tropical climate, influenced by the monsoon and experiences two distinct seasons a wet and dry. The city is susceptible to typhoons during the summer and autumn, they can cause significant damage and loss of life.

The city has an annual mean temperature of 23 degrees and gets significant amounts of precipitation during the wet season that when combined with Typhoons cause significant flooding.

Environment

Air Quality

Guangzhou suffers from some of the worst air pollution of any mega-city on Kobol. A Study in 1809 found that a significant amount of the pollution originates from surrounding Guangdong province.

To combat the pollution some factories in neighbouring Guangdong have been closed down with others ordered to reduce pollution levels or face hefty fines. Also the government has spent billions on upgrading, improving and extending the public transport network, with the city now having over 10,000 taxis and busses running on LPG, Bio fuels or Electricity. The city along with Guangdong have strict emission rules that have led to some 400,000 vehicles being banned from their roads.

Many other measures have been considered including a congestion charge, an 'odd - even' system whereby on particular days only vehicles with odd number plates are allowed to drive on the roads but they have so far not been accepted.

Waste and Recycling

Guangzhou produces over 6.7 million tonnes of municipal waste a year. Due to a lack of space caused by urban growth and planning controls no landfills are now present in the municipality so waste has to be transported to sites in Guangdong. In 1805 the city started a pilot recycling initiative, this proved to be so successful that it was rolled out across the entire municipality the following year.

In 1810 the Recycle for Guangzhou (回收石家庄) programme has seen formal recycling rates in the city soar to an impressive 72% with most types of waste now recycled including;

• Cardboard
• Electronics
• Glass
• Food Waste
• Metals
• Paper
• Plastics
• Textiles
• Wood

Recycling is now seen as the thing to do and many elderly are seen sorting people's waste for them. The City has become a hub for the recycling industry with many factories and facilities built. In 1809 the Guangdong Special Waste Recovery and Recycling Zone was set up with all city operations being moved to state-of-the art facilities. The industry has benefited from the huge demand created by the thousands of factories in the delta that need raw materials to manufacture goods that are exported all over Gaea.

The city also recycles waste from Guangdong. The province also has similar programmes aimed to support and increase recycling rates.

Culture

Because of Guangzhou's status as the cultural and economic centre of East Orientia for the first half of the fifteenth century, it is popularly seen as the birthplace of everything considered modern in Zhonghua. It was in Guangzhou, for example, that the first motor car was driven and (technically) the first train tracks and modern sewers were laid. In the latest 5 years Guangzhou has been widely recognised as a new influence and inspiration for cyberpunk culture. Futuristic buildings such as the Orientia Pearl Tower and the neon-illuminated Yan'an Elevated Road are a few examples that have helped to boast Guangzhou's cyberpunk image.

Cinema

Besides literature, Guangzhou was also the birthplace of Zhonghuanese cinema and theatre. Zhonghua’s first short film, The Difficult Couple (難夫難妻, Nanfu Nanqi, 1713), and the country’s first fictional feature film, An Orphan Rescues His Grandfather (孤兒救祖記, Gu'er Jiu Zuji, 1723) were both produced in Shijiazhuang. These two films were very influential, and established Guangzhou as the centre of Zhonghuanese film-making. Guangzhou’s film industry went on to blossom during the early 1730s, generating Marilyn Monroe-like stars such as Zhou Xuan.

Fashion

In the recent times Guangzhou has gotten its own fashion week called Guangzhou Fashion Week. It is held twice every year in October and April. The April session is a part of Guangzhou International Fashion Culture Festival which usually lasts for a month, while Guangzhou Fashion Week lasts for seven days, and the main venue is in Fuxing Park, Guangzhou, while the opening and closing ceremony is in Guangzhou Fashion Centre. Supported by the People’s Republic Ministry of Commerce, Guangzhou Fashion Week is a major business and culture event of national class hosted by the Guangzhou Municipal Government. Guangzhou Fashion Week is aiming to build up an international and professional platform, gathering all top design talents of Orientia. The event features international designers but the primary purpose is to showcase Zhonghuanese designers. The international presence has included many of the most promising young American, Australian and European fashion designers.

Along with ???? and ???, Guangzhou is one of Orientia's primary fashion hubs. The city has the sixth largest concentration of high-end fashion boutiques on Kobol behind; London, ???, Tokyo, Paris, ??? and ???.