Capital of Guangdong province, south China; population (2010) 11,071,400. On the Zhu River, Guangzhou is one of China's major ports, handling some 15% of the country's foreign trade. Industries include steel, shipbuilding, engineering, and the manufacture of automobiles, electronic goods, chemicals, fertilizers, cement, and textiles. History Guangzhou was China's chief port for foreign trade with a large Arab community by the time of the Tang dynasty (7th–9th centuries). The first European visitors were the Portuguese in 1516. Between 1730 and 1840 it was the only port in China open to European trade. It was a treaty port from 1842 until its occupation by Japan in 1938. The city was the centre of nationalism in China, the republican leader Sun Zhong Shan himself being Cantonese (a native of Guangdong). The Japanese encountered stiff resistance during their invasion of 1938, but Guangzhou eventually fell after the city centre was reduced to rubble and its industrial works demolished by…