Guangdong, also Kwangtung or Kuang-tung, province in southern China, on the South China Sea. The terrain of Guangdong is primarily rolling hills; the vast delta of the Zhu Jiang (Pearl River) is Guangdong’s only important lowland. It is bounded by the Chuang Autonomous Region of Kwangsi to the west, the provinces of Hunan and Kiangsi to the north and Fukien to the northeast, and the South China Sea to the south. Kwangtung has one of the longest coastlines of any Chinese province.

Kwangtung and Kwangsi often were governed jointly. Kwangtung was first incorporated into the Chinese empire in 222 BC. During the five centuries of the Sui, T'ang, and Northern Sung dynasties, from AD 581 to 1126, the military and agricultural colonization of the region gradually took place. This, combined with increasing overseas trade through Canton, led to an increase of Chinese migration into Kwangtung and to the rise of Canton as a metropolis with a population of hundreds of thousands.

Rice, sugarcane, fruit, and fish (both sea catch and pond-raised). Iron ore, tungsten, molybdenum, and coal are all mined in the area, and petroleum was discovered in 1979 on the Leizhou Bandao Peninsula. Guangzhou (sometimes called Canton) is the capital, largest city.

Major industrial towns are Zhanjiang, Maoming, Yangjiang, jiangmen, Dongguan, Heyuan, Zhao'an, Mexian and Shaoguan.

Area 197,100 sq km (76,100 sq mi); population 86,420,000.

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