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Golden Heroes

Golden Heroes is a British superhero role-playing game that was originally written and published on an amateur basis in 1981, and then republished in a more complete and professional form by Games Workshop in 1984.

Description
Golden Heroes is a superhero game not affiliated with any line of comic books (unlike Marvel Super Heroes, for example, which is based on the superheroes found in Marvel Comics.) Because of this, a player has to create their superhero from scratch, not based on a pre-existing superhero.

The first step in character generation is to randomly determine via dice rolls the character's basic attributes of Ego, Strength, Dexterity and Vigor. The dice rolls also determine the character's superpowers. There is an opportunity for the player to modify abilities somewhat, but not to change the superpowers. A character can only keep their full set of powers if they can justify them all in a plausible origins story.

During play, the player must keep track of the superhero's private life, what happens during leisure time and the work done while using the hero's secret identity. Characters are "rated" after each game and are more likely to succeed in future games if they behave in ways consistent with Comic Book tropes.

Publication history
Golden Heroes was developed at University of Birmingham by Simon Burley and Peter Haines in 1981, who self-published their manuscript as a 60-page mimeographed book. Burley and Haines shopped the book to Games Workshop, who expanded the material to include Marvel characters in the hopes of acquiring a role-playing game license from Marvel Comics. When Marvel awarded the license to TSR instead, Games Workshop expunged the Marvel content and published the result as Golden Heroes in 1984. The box cover art by Alan Craddock is meant look like the cover of an American comic book of the time, complete with a fake bar code and a fake Comics Code Authority approval badge. Interior art was by a plethora of British artists, including Brian Bolland, Kevin Bulmer, Mike Collins, Declan Considine, Alan Davis, Kirk Etienne, Brett Ewins, Jon Glentoran, David Hine, Gary Mayes, and Brendan McCarthy, several of whom were working for the British comic book 2000 AD at the time.

The following year, Games Workshop published two adventures and one supplement for Golden Heroes: Games Workshop also published content for the game in their house magazine White Dwarf, and produced a line of metal miniatures.
 * Legacy of Eagles
 * Queen Victoria & The Holy Grail
 * Supervisor's Kit

Twenty years after Games Workshop let the Golden Heroes line of products lapse, one of the original creators, Simon Burley, resurrected the game as Squadron UK in 2006.

Reception
Writing in Issue 62 of White Dwarf (February 1985), Marcus L. Rowland noted "As a late contender in the super RPG field, Golden Heroes faces severe opposition from established games. However, its quality, scope, and the fact that it is orientated towards British players are bound to make it successful, if there is a steady flow of supplements and scenarios." Rowland concluded by giving the game an overall rating of 10 out of 10.

Pete Tamlyn reviewed Golden Heroes for Imagine magazine, and stated that "For younger players, and If you just want the Superhero game for light relief and one-off scenarios, then [Marvel Superheroes] is the best, but if you are planning to run an extended Superhero campaign then Golden Heroes wins hands down."

In his 1990 book The Complete Guide to Role-Playing Games, game critic Rick Swan was disappointed in the game, particularly the character generation system, pointing out "basically [the player] is saddled with whatever powers the dice-rolls dictate, no matter how contradictory or silly. Because the random ability system freely mixes useless powers with god-like, there's only a remote chance that players will receive [player characters] of comparable talents." Swan was likewise dismayed by the combat system, calling it "a hodge-podge of weapon classes, target ranges and power grades bordering on the incomprehensible." Swan also didn't like the extensive paperwork required to track a hero's private life. Swan concluded by giving the game a below average rating of 2 out of 4, saying, "The rulebooks boast some nice artwork, and the thoughtful referee's tips are applicable to any comic-book RPG, but there's just not enough substance in Golden Heroes to recommend it over the competition." However, Swan found the two adventures released for Golden Heroes to be "surprisingly good, particularly Queen Victoria & The Holy Grail, an exciting adventure with supernatural overtones."

More than ten years after its publication, Tony Johnston did a retrospective review of Golden Heroes for the British games magazine Arcane, calling it "A superb system, and one which some referees I know still use today, adapted for other games." That same year, Arcane held a reader poll to determine the fifty most popular role-playing games and Golden Heroes was ranked 41st. Editor Paul Pettengale commented: "The gameplay reflects a refined approach to the superhero genre, and roleplaying tends to take priority over combat."

Other reviews and commentary

 * Different Worlds #43
 * The V.I.P. of Gaming Magazine #3 (April/May, 1986)

title: Golden Heroes


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Guangzhou

Guangzhou, alternatively as Canton  or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about 120 km north-northwest of Hong Kong and 145 km north of Macau, Guangzhou has a history of over 2,200 years and was a major terminus of the Silk Road.

The port of Guangzhou serves as transportation hub and Guangzhou is one of China's three largest cities. For a long time it was the only Chinese port accessible to most foreign traders. Guangzhou was captured by the British during the First Opium War and no longer enjoyed a monopoly after the war; consequently it lost trade to other ports such as Hong Kong and Shanghai, but continued to serve as a major entrepôt. Due to a high urban population and large volumes of port traffic, Guangzhou is classified as a Large-Port Megacity, the largest type of port city in the world. Following the Second Battle of Chuenpi in 1841, the Treaty of Nanking was signed between Sir Robert Peel on behalf of Queen Victoria and Lin Zexu on behalf of Emperor Xuanzong and has ceded Hong Kong to the United Kingdom on 26 January 1841 after the agreement of the Convention of Chuenpi. Due to worldwide travel restrictions at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, the major airport of Guangzhou, briefly became the world's busiest airport by passenger traffic in 2020.

Guangzhou is at the heart of the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macau Greater Bay Area, the most populous built-up metropolitan area in the world, which extends into the neighboring cities of Foshan, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Shenzhen and part of Jiangmen, Huizhou, Zhuhai and Macau, forming the largest urban agglomeration on Earth with approximately 70 million residents and part of the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone. Administratively, the city holds subprovincial status and is one of China's nine National Central Cities. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, nationals of sub-Saharan Africa who had initially settled in the Middle East and Southeast Asia moved in unprecedented numbers to Guangzhou in response to the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis. The domestic migrant population from other provinces of China in Guangzhou was 40% of the city's total population in 2008. Guangzhou has one of the most expensive real estate markets in China. As of the 2020 census, the registered population of the city's expansive administrative area was 18,676,605 individuals (up 47 percent from the previous census in 2010), of whom 16,492,590 lived in 9 urban districts (all but Conghua and Zengcheng). Guangzhou is the fifth most populous city by urban resident population in China after Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Chongqing.

In modern commerce, Guangzhou is best known for its annual Canton Fair, the oldest and largest trade fair in China. For three consecutive years (2013–2015), Forbes ranked Guangzhou as the best commercial city in mainland China. Guangzhou is highly ranked as an Alpha (global first-tier) city together with San Francisco and Stockholm. It is a major Asia-Pacific finance hub, ranking 21st globally in the 2020 Global Financial Centres Index. As an important international city, Guangzhou has hosted numerous international and national sporting events, the most notable being the 2010 Asian Games, the 2010 Asian Para Games, and the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup. The city hosts 65 foreign representatives, making it the major city hosting the third most foreign representatives in China, after Beijing and Shanghai. As of 2020, Guangzhou ranks 10th in the world and 5th in China—after Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Shenzhen—for the number of billionaire residents by the Hurun Global Rich List.

Guangzhou is a major Asia-Pacific research and development hub with a high level of scientific research output, ranking 8th globally and 4th in the Asia-Pacific, and is home to many of China's most prestigious universities, including Sun Yat-sen University, South China University of Technology, Jinan University, South China Normal University, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou University, Southern Medical University, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou Medical University, and Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine.

Toponymy

Guǎngzhōu is the official romanization of the Chinese name. The name of the city is taken from the ancient Guǎng Prefecture after it had become the prefecture's seat of government. The character or  means 'broad' or 'expansive'.

Before acquiring its current name, the town was known as Panyu (Punyü; ), a name still borne by one of Guangzhou's districts not far from the main city. The origin of the name is still uncertain, with 11 various explanations being offered, including that it may have referred to two local mountains. The city has also sometimes been known as Guangzhou Fu or Guangfu after its status as the capital of a prefecture. From this latter name, Guangzhou was known to medieval Persians such as Al-Masudi and Ibn Khordadbeh as Khanfu (خانفو). Under the Southern Han, the city was renamed Xingwang Fu.

The Chinese abbreviation for Guangzhou is, pronounced Seoi6 in Cantonese and Suì in Mandarin—although the abbreviation on car license plates, as with the rest of the province, is ), after its nickname "City of Rice" (. The city has long borne the nickname City of Rams or City of the Five Rams  from the five stones at the old Temple of the Five Immortals said to have been the sheep or goats ridden by the Taoist culture heroes credited with introducing rice cultivation to the area around the time of the city's foundation. The former name "City of the Immortals" (/五仙城) came from the same story. The more recent City of Flowers is usually taken as a simple reference to the area's fine greenery.

The English name "Canton" derived from Portuguese Cidade de Cantão, a blend of dialectal pronunciations of "Guangdong" (e.g., Cantonese Gwong2-dung1). Although it originally and chiefly applied to the walled city, it was occasionally conflated with Guangdong by some authors. It was adopted as the Postal Map Romanization of Guangzhou, and remained the official name until its name change to "Guangzhou". As an adjective, it is still used in describing the people, language, cuisine and culture of Guangzhou and the surrounding Liangguang region. The 19th-century name was "Kwang-chow foo".

Prehistory
A settlement now known as Nanwucheng was present in the area by 1100 BC. Some traditional Chinese histories placed Nanwucheng's founding during the reign of King Nan of Zhou, emperor of Zhou from 314 to 256 BC. It was said to have consisted of little more than a stockade of bamboo and mud.

Nanyue
Guangzhou, then known as Panyu, was founded on the eastern bank of the Pearl River in 214 BC. Ships commanded by tradespersons arrived on the South China coast in the late antiquity. Surviving records from the Tang dynasty confirm, that the residents of Panyu observed a range of trade missions. Records on foreign trade ships reach upon til the late 20th century.

Panyu was the seat of Qin Empire's Nanhai Commandery, and served as a base for the first invasion of the Baiyue lands in southern China. Legendary accounts claimed that the soldiers at Panyu were so vigilant that they did not remove their armor for three years. Upon the fall of the Qin, General Zhao Tuo established the kingdom of Nanyue and made Panyu its capital in 204 BC. It remained independent throughout the Chu-Han Contention, although Zhao negotiated recognition of his independence in exchange for his nominal submission to the Han in 196 BC. Archeological evidence shows that Panyu was an expansive commercial center: in addition to items from central China, archeologists have found remains originating from Southeast Asia, India, and even Africa. Zhao Tuo was succeeded by Zhao Mo and then Zhao Yingqi. Upon Zhao Yingqi's death in 115 BC, his younger son Zhao Xing was named as his successor in violation of Chinese primogeniture. By 113 BC, his Chinese mother, the Empress Dowager Jiu had prevailed upon him to submit Nanyue as a formal part of the Han Empire. The native prime minister Lü Jia launched a coup, killing Han ambassadors along with the king, his mother, and their supporters. A successful ambush then annihilated a Han force which had been sent to arrest him. Emperor Wu of Han took offense and launched a massive riverine and seaborne war: six armies under Lu Bode and Yang Pu took Panyu and annexed Nanyue by the end of 111 BC.

Imperial China

Incorporated into the Han dynasty, Panyu became a provincial capital. In AD 226, it became the seat of Guang Prefecture, which gave it its modern name. The Old Book of Tang described Guangzhou as an important port in southern China. Direct routes connected the Middle East and China, as shown in the records of a Chinese prisoner returning home from Iraq twelve years after his capture at Talas. Relations were often strained: while China was undergoing the An Lushan Rebellion, Arab and Persian pirates sacked the city on 30 October 758   and in revenge thousands of Arabs and Persians were killed by Chinese rebels in the Yangzhou massacre (760). In the Guangzhou massacre about 200,000 Arab, Persian and other foreigners were killed by Chinese rebel Huang Chao in 878, along with the city's Jews, Christians,  and Parsis. The port was closed for fifty years after its destruction.

Amid the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms that followed the collapse of the Tang dynasty, the Later Liang governor Liu Yan used his base at Panyu to establish a "Great Yue" or "Southern Han" empire, which lasted from 917 to 971. The region enjoyed considerable cultural and economic success in this period. From the 10th to 12th century, there are records that the large foreign communities were not exclusively men, but included "Persian females". According to Odoric of Pordenone, Guangzhou was as large as three Venices in terms of area, and rivaled all of Italy in the amount of crafts produced. He also noted the large amount of ginger available as well as large geese and snakes. Guangzhou was visited by the Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta during his journey around the world in the 14th century. He detailed the process by which the Chinese constructed their large ships in the port's shipyards.

Shortly after the Hongwu Emperor's declaration of the Ming dynasty, he reversed his earlier support of foreign trade and imposed the first of a series of sea bans. These banned private foreign trade upon penalty of death for the merchant and exile for his family and neighbors. Previous maritime intendancies of Guangzhou, Quanzhou, and Ningbo were closed in 1384 and legal trade became limited to the tribute delegations sent to or by official representatives of foreign governments.

Following the Portuguese conquest of the Melaka Sultanate, Rafael Perestrello traveled to Guangzhou as a passenger on a native junk in 1516. His report induced Fernão Pires de Andrade to sail to the city with eight ships the next year, but De Andrade's exploration was understood as spying and his brother Simão and others began attempting to monopolize trade, enslaving Chinese women and children, engaging in piracy, and fortifying the island of Tamão. Rumors even circulated that Portuguese were eating the children. The Guangzhou administration was charged with driving them off: they bested the Portuguese at the Battle of Tunmen and in Xicao Bay; held a diplomatic mission hostage in a failed attempt to pressure the restoration of the sultan of Malacca, who had been accounted a Ming vassal; and, after placing them in cangues and keeping them for most of a year, ultimately executed 23 by lingchi. With the help of local pirates, the "Folangji" then carried out smuggling at Macao, Lampacau, and St John's Island (now Shangchuan), until Leonel de Sousa legalized their trade with bribes to Admiral Wang Bo and the 1554 Luso-Chinese Accord. The Portuguese undertook not to raise fortifications and to pay customs dues; three years later, after providing the Chinese with assistance suppressing their former pirate allies, the Portuguese were permitted to warehouse their goods at Macau instead of Guangzhou itself.

In October 1646, the Longwu Emperor's brother, Zhu Yuyue fled by sea to Guangzhou, the last stronghold of the Ming empire. On December 11, he declared himself the Shaowu Emperor, borrowing his imperial regalia from local theater troupes. He led a successful offense against his cousin Zhu Youlang but was deposed and executed on January 20, 1647, when the Ming turncoat Li Chengdong sacked the city on behalf of the Qing.

The Qing became somewhat more receptive to foreign trade after gaining control of Taiwan in 1683. The Portuguese from Macau and Spaniards from Manila returned, as did private Muslim, Armenian, and English traders. From 1699 to 1714, the French and British East India Companies sent a ship or two each year; the Austrian Ostend General India Co. arrived in 1717, the Dutch East India Co. in 1729, the Danish Asiatic Co. in 1731, and the Swedish East India Co. the next year. These were joined by the occasional Prussian or Trieste Company vessel. The first independent American ship arrived in 1784, and the first colonial Australian one in 1788. By that time, Guangzhou was one of the world's greatest ports, organized under the Canton System. The main exports were tea and porcelain. As a meeting place of merchants from all over the world, Guangzhou became a major contributor to the rise of the modern global economy.

In the 19th century, most of the city's buildings were still only one or two stories. However, there were notable exceptions such as the Flower Pagoda of the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees, and the guard tower known as the Five-Story Pagoda. The subsequently urbanized northern hills were bare and covered with traditional graves. The brick city walls were about 6 mi in circumference, 25 ft high, and 20 ft wide. Its eight main gates and two water gates all held guards during the day and were closed at night. The wall rose to incorporate a hill on its northern side and was surrounded on the other three by a moat which, along with the canals, functioned as the city's sewer, emptied daily by the river's tides. A partition wall with four gates divided the northern "old town" from the southern "new town" closer to the river; the suburb of Xiguan (Saikwan; "West Gate") stretched beyond and the boats of fishers, traders, and Tanka ("boat people") almost entirely concealed the riverbank for about 4 mi. It was common for homes to have a storefront facing the street and to treat their courtyards as a kind of warehouse. The city was part of a network of signal towers so effective that messages could be relayed to Beijing—about 1200 mi away—in less than 24 hours.

The Canton System was maintained until the outbreak of the First Opium War in 1839. Following a series of battles in the Pearl River Delta, the British captured Canton on March 18, 1841. The Second Battle of Canton was fought two months later. Following the Qing's 1842 treaty with Great Britain, Guangzhou lost its privileged trade status as more and more treaty ports were opened to more and more countries, usually including extraterritorial enclaves. Amid the decline of Qing prestige and the chaos of the Red Turban Rebellion (1854–1856), the Punti and Hakka waged a series of clan wars from 1855 to 1867 in which one million people died. The foreign trade facilities were destroyed by local Chinese in the Arrow War (1856–1858). The international community relocated to the outskirts and most international trade moved through Shanghai.

The concession for the Guangdong–Hankou Railway was awarded to the American China Development Co. in 1898. It completed its branch line west to Foshan and Sanshui before being engulfed in a diplomatic crisis after a Belgian consortium bought a controlling interest and the Qing subsequently canceled its concession. J.P. Morgan was awarded millions in damages and the line to Wuchang was not completed until 1936 and the completion of a unified Beijing–Guangzhou Railway waited until the completion of Wuhan's Yangtze River Bridge in 1957.

Revolutions
During the late Qing dynasty, Guangzhou was the site of revolutionary attempts such as the Uprisings of 1895 and 1911 that were the predecessors of the successful Xinhai Revolution, which overthrew the Qing dynasty. The 72 revolutionaries whose bodies were found after the latter uprising are honored as the city's 72 Martyrs at the Huanghuagang ("Yellow Flower Mound") Mausoleum.

Republic of China
After the assassination of Song Jiaorenn and Yuan Shikai's attempts to remove the Nationalist Party of China from power, the leader of Guangdong Hu Hanmin joined the 1913 Second Revolution against him but was forced to flee to Japan with Sun Yat-sen after its failure. The city came under national spotlight again in 1917, when Prime Minister Duan Qirui's abrogation of the constitution triggered the Constitutional Protection Movement. Sun Yat-sen came to head the Guangzhou Military Government supported by the members of the dissolved parliament and the Southwestern warlords. The Guangzhou government fell apart as the warlords withdrew their support. Sun fled to Shanghai in November 1918 until the Guangdong warlord Chen Jiongming restored him in October 1920 during the Yuegui Wars. On June 16, 1922, Sun was ousted in a coup and fled on the warship Yongfeng after Chen sided with the Zhili Clique's Beijing government. In the following months Sun mounted a counterattack into Guangdong by rallying supporters from Yunnan and Guangxi, and in January established a government in the city for the third time.

From 1923 to 1926 Sun and the Kuomintang (KMT) used the city as a base to prosecute a renewed revolution in China by conquering the warlords in the north. Although Sun was previously dependent on opportunistic warlords who hosted him in the city, with the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek, the KMT developed its own military power to serve its ambition. The Canton years saw the evolution of the KMT into a revolutionary movement with a strong military focus and ideological commitment, setting the tone of the KMT rule of China beyond 1927.

In 1924, the KMT made the momentous decision to ally with the Communist Party and the USSR. With Soviet help, KMT reorganized itself along the Leninist line and adopted a pro-labor and pro-peasant stance. The Kuomintang-CCP cooperation was confirmed in the First Congress of the KMT and the communists were instructed to join the KMT. The allied government set up the Peasant Movement Training Institute in the city, of which Mao Zedong was a director for one term. Sun and his military commander Chiang used Soviet funds and weapons to build an armed force staffed by communist commissars, training its cadres in the Whampoa Military Academy. In August, the fledgling army suppressed the Canton Merchants' Corps Uprising. The next year the anti-imperialist May Thirtieth Movement swept the country, and the KMT government called for strikes in Canton and Hong Kong. The tensions of the massive strikes and protests led to the Shakee Massacre.

After the death of Sun Yat-sen in 1925 the mood was changing in the party toward the communists. In August the left-wing KMT leader Liao Zhongkai was assassinated and the right-wing leader Hu Hanmin, the suspected mastermind, was exiled to the Soviet Union, leaving the pro-communist Wang Jingwei in charge. Opposing communist encroachment, the right-wing Western Hills Group vowed to expel the communists from the KMT. The "Canton Coup" on March 20, 1926, saw Chiang solidify his control over the Nationalists and their army against Wang Jingwei, the party's left wing, its Communist allies, and its Soviet advisors. By May, he had ended civilian control of the military and begun his Northern Expedition against the warlords of the north. Its success led to the split of the KMT between Wuhan and Nanking and the purge of the communists in the April 12 Incident. Immediately afterwards Canton joined the purge under the auspice of Li Jishen, resulting in the arrest of communists and the suspension of left wing KMT apparatuses and labor groups. Later in 1927 when Zhang Fakui, a general supportive of the Wuhan faction, seized Canton and installed Wang Jingwei's faction in the city, the communists saw an opening and launched the Guangzhou Uprising. Prominent communist military leaders Ye Ting and Ye Jianying led the failed defense of the city. Soon, control of the city reverted to Li Jishen.

Li was deposed during a war between Chiang and the New Guangxi Clique. By 1929, Chen Jitang had established himself as the powerholder of Guangdong. In 1931 he threw his weight behind the anti-Chiang schism by hosting a separate Nationalist government in Guangzhou. The opposition to Chiang included KMT leaders like Wang Jingwei, Sun Fo and others from diverse factions. The peace negotiations amid the armed standoff led to the 4th National Congress of Kuomintang being held separately by three factions in Nanjing, Shanghai and Canton. Resigning all his posts, Chiang pulled off a political compromise that reunited all factions. While the intraparty division was resolved, Chen kept his power until he was defeated by Chiang in 1936. During the WW2, the "Canton Operation" subjected the city to Japanese occupation by the end of December 1938.

People's Republic of China
Amid the closing months before total Communist victory, Guangzhou briefly served as the capital of the Republican government. Guangzhou was captured on October 14, 1949. Amid a massive exodus to Hong Kong and Macau, defeated Nationalist forces blew up the Haizhu Bridge across the Pearl River in retreat. The Cultural Revolution had a large effect on the city, with many of its temples, churches and other monuments destroyed during this chaotic period.

The People's Republic of China initiated building projects including new housing on the banks of the Pearl River to adjust the city's boat people to life on land. Since the 1980s, the city's close proximity to Hong Kong and Shenzhen and its ties to overseas Chinese made it one of the first beneficiaries of China's opening up under Deng Xiaoping. Beneficial tax reforms in the 1990s also helped the city's industrialization and economic development.

The municipality was expanded in the year 2000, with Huadu and Panyu joining the city as urban districts and Conghua and Zengcheng as more rural counties. The former districts of Dongshan and Fangcun were abolished in 2005, merged into Yuexiu and Liwan respectively. The city acquired Nansha and Luogang. The former was carved out of Panyu, the latter from parts of Baiyun, Tianhe, Zengcheng, and an exclave within Huangpu. The National People's Congress approved a development plan for the Pearl River Delta in January 2009; on March 19 of the same year, the Guangzhou and Foshan municipal governments agreed to establish a framework to merge the two cities. In 2014, Luogang merged into Huangpu and both Conghua and Zengcheng counties were upgraded to districts.

On 16 June 2022 an EF2 tornado struck the city, causing major power outages and knocking out power to the city's subway lines.

Geography
The old town of Guangzhou was near Baiyun Mountain on the east bank of the Pearl River (Zhujiang) about 80 mi from its junction with the South China Sea and about 300 mi below its head of navigation. It commanded the rich alluvial plain of the Pearl River Delta, with its connection to the sea protected at the Humen Strait. The present city spans 7434.4 sqkm on both sides of the river from 112° 57′ to 114° 03′ E longitude and 22° 26′ to 23° 56′ N latitude in south-central Guangdong. The Pearl is the 4th-largest river of China. Intertidal ecosystems exist on the tidal flat lining the river estuary, however, many of the tidal flats have been reclaimed for agriculture. Baiyun Mountain is now locally referred to as the city's "lung".

The elevation of the prefecture generally increases from southwest to northeast, with mountains forming the backbone of the city and the ocean comprising the front. Tiantang Peak is the highest point of elevation at 1210 m above sea level.

Natural resources
There are 47 different types of minerals and also 820 ore fields in Guangzhou, including 18 large and medium-sized oil deposits. The major minerals are granite, cement limestone, ceramic clay, potassium, albite, salt mine, mirabilite, nepheline, syenite, fluorite, marble, mineral water, and geothermal mineral water. Since Guangzhou is located in the water-rich area of southern China, it has a wide water area with many rivers and water systems, accounting for 10% of the total land area. The rivers and streams improve the landscape and keep the ecological environment of the city stable.

Water resources
The main characteristics of Guangzhou's water resources are that there are relatively few local water resources and relatively abundant transit water resources. The city's water area is 74,400 hectares, accounting for 10.05% of the city's land area. The main rivers include Beijiang, Dongjiang North Mainstream, Zengjiang, Liuxi River, Baini River, Pearl River Guangzhou Reach, Shiqiao Waterway, and Shawan Waterway. Beijiang, The Dongjiang River flows through Guangzhou City and merges with the Pearl River to flow into the sea. The local average total water resources is 7.979 billion cubic meters, including 7.881 billion cubic meters of surface water and 1.487 billion cubic meters of groundwater. Calculated based on the amount of local water resources and the permanent population counted in the sixth census in 2010, there are 1.0601 million cubic meters of water resources per square kilometer, with an average of 628 cubic meters per capita, which is one-half of the country's per capita water resources. The amount of water resources for transit passengers is 186.024 billion cubic meters, which is 23 times the total local water resources. The passenger water resources are mainly concentrated in the southern Wanghe District and Zengcheng District. The passenger water resources diverted from the Xijiang and Beijiang Rivers into Guangzhou City are 159.15 billion cubic meters, and the passenger water resources diverted from the Dongjiang River into the north mainstream of the Dongjiang River are 14.203 billion cubic meters. meters and the water inflow from the upper reaches of the Zengjiang River is 2.828 billion cubic meters. The southern river network area is in the tidal influence area, with large runoff and a strong tidal effect. The three major entrances of the Pearl River, Humen, Jiaomen, and Hongqili, enter the Lingding Ocean and exit the South China Sea in the south of Guangzhou City. The annual high tide volume is 271 billion cubic meters and the annual ebb tide volume is 408.8 billion cubic meters. The annual runoff of the three major entrances is 137.7 billion cubic meters. Compared with meters, the annual tide can bring a large amount of water, part of which is freshwater resources that can be utilized.

Biological Resources
Cultivated crops in Guangzhou have the distinctive characteristics of the transition from the tropics to the subtropics, and it is one of the richest regions in China in terms of fruit tree resources, including three major categories of tropical, subtropical, and temperate zones, 41 families, 82 genera and 174 species, totaling more than 500 varieties (among which there are 55 major varieties of lychee). It is the center of origin and variety of lychee, longan, yellow skin, black (white) olive, and so on. Vegetables are known for their high quality and variety, with 15 major categories, 127 species, and more than 370 varieties. Flowers include fresh cut flowers (fresh cut flowers, fresh cut leaves, fresh cut branches), potted plants (potted flowers, bonsai, flower bed plants), ornamental seedlings, edible and medicinal flowers, industrial and other uses of flowers, lawns, seedlings, etc. More than 3,000 traditional varieties and in recent years the introduction of new varieties, development, and utilization. Grain, cash crops, livestock, poultry, aquatic products, wild animals, and a wide variety of famous and excellent varieties, including Zengcheng Simiao rice is the first protected variety in Guangzhou City to obtain geographical indications.

Mineral Resources
The geological structure of Guangzhou City is quite complex, with good conditions for mineralization. Forty-seven kinds of minerals (including subspecies) have been discovered, with 820 mineral sites and 25 large and medium-sized mining areas. The main minerals are granite for construction, limestone for cement, ceramic clay, potassium, sodium feldspar, salt mines, manganese, nepheline orthoclase, fluorite, marble, mineral water, and thermal mineral water. Energy minerals and non-ferrous minerals in the area are in short supply, sporadically distributed, small in scale, and unstable in grade. ,

Climate
Despite being located just south of the Tropic of Cancer, Guangzhou has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cwa) influenced by the East Asian monsoon. Summers are wet with high temperatures, high humidity, and a high heat index. Winters are mild and comparatively dry. Guangzhou has a lengthy monsoon season, spanning from April through September. Monthly averages range from 13.8 °C in January to 28.9 °C in July, while the annual mean is 22.4 °C. Autumn, from October to December, is very moderate, cool and windy, and is the best travel time. The relative humidity is approximately 76 percent, whereas annual rainfall in the metropolitan area is over 1950 mm. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 17 percent in March to 51 percent in October, the city receives 1,559 hours of bright sunshine annually, considerably less than nearby Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Extreme temperatures have ranged from 0 °C to 39.4 °C. The last recorded snowfall in the city was on January 24, 2016, 87 years after the second last recorded snowfall.

Administrative divisions
Guangzhou is a sub-provincial city. It has direct jurisdiction over eleven districts:

Economy
Guangzhou is the main manufacturing hub of the Pearl River Delta, one of mainland China's leading commercial and manufacturing regions. In 2021, its GDP reached ¥2,823 billion (US$444.37 billion in nominal), making it the 2nd largest economy in the South-Central China region after Shenzhen. Guangzhou's GDP (nominal) was $444.37 billion in 2021, exceeding that Guangzhou's per capita was ¥151,162 ($23,794 in nominal). Guangzhou is considered one of the most prosperous cities in China. Guangzhou ranks 10th in the world and 5th in China (after Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Shenzhen) in terms of the number of billionaires according to the Hurun Global Rich List 2020. Guangzhou is projected to be among the world top 10 largest cities in terms of nominal GDP in 2035 (together with Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen in China) according to a study by Oxford Economics, and its nominal GDP per capita will reach above $42,000 in 2030. Guangzhou also ranks 21st globally (between Washington, D.C., and Amsterdam) and 8th in the whole Asia & Oceania region (behind Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing, Shenzhen and Dubai) in the 2020 Global Financial Centers Index (GFCI). Owing to rapid industrialization, it was once also considered a rather polluted city. After green urban planning was implemented, it is now one of the most livable cities in China.

Zhujiang New Town
Zhujiang New Town is the central business district of Guangzhou in the 21st century. It covers 6.44 km2 in Tianhe District. Multiple financial institutions are headquartered in this area.

Canton Fair
The Canton Fair, formally the "China Import and Export Fair", is held every year in April and October by the Ministry of Trade. Inaugurated in the spring of 1957, the fair is a major event for the city. It is the trade fair with the longest history, highest level, and largest scale in China. From the 104th session onwards, the fair moved to the new Guangzhou International Convention and Exhibition Center in Pazhou, from the older complex in Liuhua. The GICEC is served by two stations on Line 8 and three stations on Tram Line THZ1. Since the 104th session, the Canton Fair has been arranged in three phases instead of two phases.

Local products

 * Cantonese cuisine is one of China's most famous and popular regional cuisines, with a saying stating simply to "Eat in Guangzhou".
 * Cantonese sculpture includes work in jade, wood, and (controversially) ivory.
 * Canton porcelain developed over the past three centuries as one of the major forms of exportware. It is now known within China for its highly colorful style.
 * Cantonese embroidery is one of china's four main styles of the embroidery.
 * Zhujiang Beer, a pale lager, is one of China's most successful brands.

Industry

 * GAC Group
 * Guangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone
 * Guangzhou Nansha Export Processing Zone
 * The Export Processing Zone was founded in 2005. Its total planned area is 1.36 km2. It is located in Nansha District and it belongs to the provincial capital, Guangzhou. The major industries encouraged in the zone include automobile assembly, biotechnology and heavy industry. It is situated 54 km (a 70 minutes drive) south of Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport and close to Nansha Port. It also has the advantage of Guangzhou Metro line 4 which is being extended to Nansha Ferry Terminal.
 * Guangzhou Free Trade Zone
 * The zone was founded in 1992. It is located in the east of Huangpu District and near to Guangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone. It is also very close to Guangzhou Baiyun Airport. The major industries encouraged in the zone include international trade, logistics, processing and computer software. Recently the Area has been rebranded and is now being marketed under the name Huangpu District. Next to the industries above, new sectors are being introduced to the business environment, including new energy, AI, new mobility, new materials, information and communication technology and new transport. It is also home to the Guangzhou IP Court.
 * Guangzhou Science City

Business Environment
Guangzhou is a hub for international businesses. According to an article by China Briefing, over 30,000 foreign-invested companies had settled in Guangzhou by 2018, including 297 Fortune Global 500 companies with projects and 120 Fortune Global 500 companies with headquarters or regional headquarters in the city.

Demographics
The 2010 census found Guangzhou's population to be 12.78 million. , it was estimated at 13,080,500, with 11,264,800 urban residents. Its population density is thus around 1,800 people per km2. The built-up area of the Guangzhou proper connects directly to several other cities. The built-up area of the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone covers around 17573 km2 and has been estimated to house 22 million people, including Guangzhou's nine urban districts, Shenzhen (5.36m), Dongguan (3.22m), Zhongshan (3.12m), most of Foshan (2.2m), Jiangmen (1.82m), Zhuhai (890k), and Huizhou's Huiyang District (760k). The total population of this agglomeration is over 28 million after including the population of the adjacent Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The area's fast-growing economy and high demand for labor has produced a huge "floating population" of migrant workers; thus, up to 10 million migrants reside in the area least six months each year. In 2008, about five million of Guangzhou's permanent residents were hukouless migrants.

Ethnicity and language
Most of Guangzhou's population is Han Chinese. Almost all Cantonese people speak Cantonese as their first language, while most migrants speak forms of Mandarin. In 2010, each language was the native tongue of roughly half of the city's population, although minor but substantial numbers speak other varieties as well. In 2018, He Huifeng of the South China Morning Post stated that younger residents have increasingly favored using Mandarin instead of Cantonese in their daily lives, causing their Cantonese-speaking grandparents and parents to use Mandarin to communicate with them. He Huifeng stated that factors included local authorities discouraging the use of Cantonese in schools and the rise in prestige of Mandarin-speaking Shenzhen. Jinan University released a survey result of the Guangzhou youths born in the year 2000 or after that were part of this educational study showed that 69% could still speak and understand Cantonese, 20% can understand Cantonese, but unable to speak it, and 11% completely had no knowledge of Cantonese. Jinan University's study of these Guangzhou youths also indicated when it came to the daily recreational use of Cantonese, roughly 40%-50% of them participated in these recreational functions with the usage of Cantonese with 51.4% of them in mobile games, 47% in Social Platforms, 44.1% in TV shows, and 39.8% in Books and Newspapers. Despite some decline in the use of Cantonese, it is faring better in survival, popularity, and prestige than other Chinese languages due to the historical pride in the language and culture, as well as the wide popularity and availability of mainstream Cantonese entertainment, which encourages locals to retain the Cantonese language. As of the 2020s, additional renewed efforts were introduced to preserve the local Cantonese language and culture with some limited Cantonese language classes now being taught in some schools as well as hosting Cantonese appreciation cultural events along with hosting activities that cater to the local Cantonese culture and language as well as many local Cantonese speaking families are now placing much stronger emphasis on their children to speak Cantonese to preserve the culture and language. In a 2018 report study by Shan Yunming and Li Sheng, the report showed that 90% of people living in Guangzhou are bilingual in both Cantonese and Mandarin, though fluency will vary depending on if they are locally born to the city and the surrounding Guangdong province or migrants from other provinces, which shows how much importance the Cantonese language still has in the city despite the strict policy rules from the government to be using Mandarin as the country's official language. Guangzhou has an even more unbalanced gender ratio than the rest of the country. While most areas of China have 112–120 boys per 100 girls, the Guangdong province that houses Guangzhou has more than 130 boys for every 100 girls.

Guangzhou also possesses a large resident population who are Hakka people. There are seven administrative districts in Guangzhou with a considerable Hakka population: Zengcheng District, Huadu District, Conghua District, Baiyun District, Tianhe District, Yuexiu District and Panyu District. It is estimated that in Zengcheng district and Huadu district of Guangzhou, Hakka speakers account for about 40 percent and a third of the district's population.

Recent years have seen a huge influx of migrants, with up to 30 million additional migrants living in the Guangzhou area for at least six months out of every year with the majority being female migrants and many becoming local Guangzhou people. This huge influx of people from other areas, called the floating population, is due to the city's fast-growing economy and high labor demands. Guangzhou Mayor Wan Qingliang told an urban planning seminar that Guangzhou is facing a very serious population problem stating that, while the city had 10.33 million registered residents at the time with targets and scales of land use based on this number, the city actually had a population with migrants of nearly 15 million. According to the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences researcher Peng Peng, the city is almost at its maximum capacity of just 15 million, which means the city is facing a great strain, mostly due to a high population of unregistered people.

According to the 2000 National Census, marriage is one of the top two reasons for permanent migration and is particularly important for women as 29.3% of the permanent female migrants migrate for marriage [Liang et al.,2004]. Many of the female economic migrants marry men from Guangzhou in hopes of a better life. but like elsewhere in the People's Republic of China, the household registration system (hukou) limits migrants' access to residences, educational institutions and other public benefits. It has been noted that many women end up in prostitution. In May 2014, legally employed migrants in Guangzhou were permitted to receive a hukou card allowing them to marry and obtain permission for their pregnancies in the city, rather than having to return to their official hometowns as previously.

Historically, the Cantonese people have made up a sizable part of the 19th- and 20th-century Chinese diaspora; in fact, many overseas Chinese have ties to Guangzhou. This is particularly true in the United States, Canada, and Australia.

Demographically, the only significant immigration into China has been by overseas Chinese, but Guangzhou sees many foreign tourists, workers, and residents from the usual locations such as the United States. Notably, it is also home to thousands of African immigrants, including people from Nigeria, Somalia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Metropolitan area
The encompassing metropolitan area was estimated by the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) to have,, a population of 25 million.

Development of Guangzhou
Gong et al 2018 report on the development of Guangzhou from 1990 until 2020, showing how in 1990, the developed residential districts were almost exclusively concentrated in a small part of western Guangzhou whereas other parts of Guangzhou had a smaller limited amount of developed residential communities being overwhelmingly surrounded by agricultural and forest lands. However, from 2005 until 2020, other parts of the city eventually began to develop more so residential communities and in the 2020 map report, it showed fully developed residential communities going from west to east of the city whereas the very southern part and large portions of northern Guangzhou still remain mainly agricultural and forest lands with very limited developed residential communities.

Urban mass transit
When the first line of the Guangzhou Metro opened in 1997, Guangzhou was the fourth city in Mainland China to have an underground railway system, behind Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai. Currently the metro network is made up of sixteen lines, covering a total length of 652.81 km. A long-term plan is to make the city's metro system expand to over 500 km by 2020 with 15 lines in operation. In addition to the metro system there is also the Haizhu Tram line which opened on December 31, 2014.

The Guangzhou Bus Rapid Transit (GBRT) system which was introduced in 2010 along Zhongshan Road. It has several connections to the metro and is the world's 2nd-largest bus rapid transit system with 1,000,000 passenger trips daily. It handles 26,900 pphpd during the peak hour a capacity second only to the TransMilenio BRT system in Bogota. The system averages one bus every 10 seconds or 350 per hour in a single direction and contains the world's longest BRT stations—around 260 m including bridges.

Motor transport
In the 19th century, the city already had over 600 long, straight streets; these were mostly paved but still very narrow. In June 1919, work began on demolishing the city wall to make way for wider streets and the development of tramways. The demolition took three years in total.

In 2009, it was reported that all 9,424 buses and 17,695 taxis in Guangzhou would be operating on LPG-fuel by 2010 to promote clean energy for transport and improve the environment ahead of the 2010 Asian Games which were held in the city. At present, Guangzhou is the city that uses the most LPG-fueled vehicles in the world, and at the end of 2006, 6,500 buses and 16,000 taxis were using LPG, taking up 85 percent of all buses and taxis. Effective January 1, 2007, the municipal government banned motorcycles in Guangdong's urban areas. Motorcycles found violating the ban are confiscated. The Guangzhou traffic bureau claimed to have reported reduced traffic problems and accidents in the downtown area since the ban.

Airports
Guangzhou's main airport is the Baiyun International Airport in Baiyun District; it opened on August 5, 2004. This airport is the second busiest airport in terms of traffic movements in China. It replaced the old Baiyun International Airport, which was very close to the city center but failed to meet the city's rapidly growing air traffic demand. The old Baiyun International Airport was in operation for 72 years. Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport now has three runways, with two more planned. Terminal 2 opened on April 26, 2018. Another airport located in Zengcheng District is under planning.

Guangzhou is served by Hong Kong International Airport; ticketed passengers can take ferries from the Lianhuashan Ferry Terminal and Nansha Ferry Port in Nansha District to the HKIA Skypier. There are also coach bus services connecting Guangzhou with HKIA.

Rail
Guangzhou is the terminus of the Beijing–Guangzhou, Guangzhou–Shenzhen, Guangzhou–Maoming and Guangzhou–Meizhou–Shantou conventional speed railways. In late 2009, the Wuhan–Guangzhou high-speed railway started service, with multiple unit trains covering 980 km at a top speed of 320 km/h. In December 2014, the Guiyang–Guangzhou high-speed railway and Nanning-Guangzhou railway began service with trains running at top speeds of 250 km/h and 200 km/h, respectively. The Guangdong Through Train departs from the Guangzhou East railway station and arrives at the Hung Hom station in Kowloon, Hong Kong. The route is approximately 182 km in length and the ride takes less than two hours. Frequent coach services are also provided with coaches departing every day from different locations (mostly major hotels) around the city. A number of regional railways radiating from Guangzhou started operating such as the Guangzhou–Zhuhai intercity railway and the Guangzhou-Foshan-Zhaoqing intercity railway.

Water transport
There are daily high-speed catamaran services between Nansha Ferry Terminal and Lianhua Shan Ferry Terminal in Guangzhou and the Hong Kong China Ferry Terminal, as well as between Nansha Ferry Terminal and Macau Ferry Pier in Hong Kong.

Culture
Guangzhou's culture is mainly Cantonese culture, which is a subset of the larger "Southern" or the "Lingnan" culture, followed by Hakka culture. Notable aspects of Cantonese cultural heritage include:

 * Cantonese language, the local and prestige variant of Yue Chinese.
 * Cantonese cuisine, one of China's eight major culinary traditions.
 * Cantonese opera, usually divided into martial and literary performances.
 * Xiguan (Saikwan), the area west of the former walled city.

The Guangzhou Opera House & Symphony Orchestra also perform classical Western music and Chinese compositions in their style. Cantonese music is a traditional style of Chinese instrumental music, while Cantopop is the local form of pop music and rock-and-roll which developed from neighboring Hong Kong.

It is worth noting that Cantonese language, Cantonese cuisine and Cantonese opera are the shared culture of the whole Guangdong region, not just the important cultural components of Guangzhou city. With a population of diverse background, the culture of Guangzhou also includes other categories, such as Hakka culture and language.

In the Hakka people inhabited areas of Guangzhou, Hakka culture has been well developed and preserved, and in the long history, the integration of Canton culture and Hakka culture has derived new cultural characteristics. Zengcheng, Guangzhou is a district with a history of more than 1800 years, with the harmonious coexistence of Canton culture and Hakka culture, the derived food culture has not only the non-heritage food such as Zhengguo Wonton, Lanxi Rice Noodle, and Goose Soup, but also the special food such as Yuecun Dace Fish Skin, Paitan Roasted Chicken, and Shitan Whole Cattle Banquet.

Religions
Before the postmodern era, Guangzhou had about 124 religious pavilions, halls, and temples. Today, in addition to the Buddhist Association, Guangzhou also has a Taoist Association, a Jewish community, as well as a history with Christianity, reintroduced to China by colonial powers.

Taoism
Taoism and Chinese folk religion are still represented at a few of the city's temples. Among the most important is the Temple of the Five Immortals, dedicated to the Five Immortals credited with introducing rice cultivation at the foundation of the city. The five rams they rode were supposed to have turned into stones upon their departure and gave the city several of its nicknames. However, the temple has not been restored as a Taoist temple status yet. Other famous temples include the City God Temple of Guangzhou and Sanyuan Palace. During the Cultural Revolution, all Taoist temples and shrines were practically destroyed or damaged by the red guards. Only a handful of them like Sanyuan Palace were restored during the 1980s. Guangzhou, like most of southern China, is also notably observant and continues the practice of Chinese ancestral worship during major festive occasions like the Qing Ming Festival and Zhong Yuan Festival.

Buddhism
Buddhism is the most prominent religion in Guangzhou. The Zhizhi Temple was founded in AD 233 from the estate of a Wu official; it is said to comprise the residence of Zhao Jiande, the last of the Nanyue kings, and has been known as the Guangxiao Temple ("Temple of Bright Filial Piety") since the Ming dynasty. The Buddhist missionary monk, Bodhidharma is traditionally said to have visited Panyu during the Liu Song or Liang dynasty (5th or 6th century). Around AD 520, Emperor Wu of the Liang ordered the construction of the Baozhuangyan Temple and the Xilai Monastery to store the relics of Cambodian Buddhist saints which had been brought to the city and to house the monks beginning to assemble there. The Baozhuangyan is now known as the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees, after a famous poem composed by Su Shi after a visit during the Northern Song. The Xilai Monastery was renamed as the Hualin Temple ("Flowery Forest Temple") after its reconstruction during the Qing dynasty.

The temples were badly damaged by both the Republican campaign to "Promote Education with Temple Property" and the PRC's Cultural Revolution but have been renovated since the opening up that began in the 1980s. The Ocean Banner Temple on Henan Island, once famous in the west as the only tourist spot in Guangzhou accessible to foreigners, has been reopened as the Hoi Tong Monastery.

Christianity
Nestorian Christians first arrived in China via the overland Silk Road, but suffered during Emperor Wuzong's 845 persecution and were essentially extinct by the year 1000. The Qing-era ban on foreigners limited missionaries until it was abolished following the First Opium War, although the Protestant Robert Morrison was able to perform some work through his service with the British factory. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Guangzhou is housed at Guangzhou's Sacred Heart Cathedral, known locally as the "Stone House". A Gothic Revival edifice which was built by hand from 1861 to 1888 under French direction, its original Latin and French stained-glass windows were destroyed during the wars and amid the Cultural Revolution; they have since been replaced by English ones. The Canton Christian College (1888) and Hackett Medical College for Women (1902) were both founded by missionaries and now form part of Guangzhou's Lingnan University. Since the opening up of China in the 1980s, there has been renewed interest in Christianity, but Guangzhou maintains pressure on underground churches which avoid registration with government officials. The Catholic archbishop Dominic Tang was imprisoned without trial for 22 years; however, his present successor is recognized by both the Vatican and China's Patriotic Church.

Islam
Guangzhou has had ties with the Islamic world since the Tang dynasty. Relations were often strained: Arab and Persian pirates sacked the city on October 30, 758; the port was subsequently closed for fifty years. Their presence came to an end under the revenge of Chinese rebel Huang Chao in 878, along with that of the Jews, Christians,  and Parsis. Nowadays, the city is home to halal restaurants.

Sports
The 11,468 seat Guangzhou Gymnasium was a 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup venue.

From November 12 to 27, 2010, Guangzhou hosted the 16th Asian Games. The same year, it hosted the first Asian Para Games from December 12 to 19. Combined, these were the major sporting events the city ever hosted.

Guangzhou also hosted the following major sporting events:
 * 1987 The 6th National Games of China
 * 1991 The 1st FIFA Women's World Cup
 * 2001 The 2001 National Games of China
 * 2007 The 8th
 * 2008 The 49th World Table Tennis Championships
 * 2009 The 11th Sudirman Cup: the world badminton mixed team championships

Current professional sports clubs based in Guangzhou include:

In the 2010s, Guangzhou became a Chinese soccer powerhouse, having won eight national titles between 2011 and 2019. The team has also won the AFC Champions League in 2013 and 2015. The club has competed at the 2013 and 2015 FIFA Club World Cup, where it lost 3–0 in the semifinal stage to the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League winners FC Bayern Munich and the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League winners FC Barcelona, respectively.

Restaurants
In the 1990s the local press prolifically published reviews of restaurants in Guangzhou. The local newspapers introduced lifestyle pages and relied on infotainment to encourage the purchase of a daily newspaper.

Eight Views
The Eight Views of Ram City are Guangzhou's eight most famous tourist attractions. They have varied over time since the Song dynasty, with some being named or demoted by emperors. The following modern list was chosen through public appraisal in 2011:

 * "Towers Shining through the New Town"
 * "The Pearl River Flowing and Shining": The Pearl River from Bai'etan to Pazhou
 * "Cloudy Mountain Green and Tidy": Baiyun Mountain Scenic Area
 * "Yuexiu's Grandeur": Yuexiu Hill and Park
 * "The Ancient Academy's Lingering Fame": The Chen Clan Ancestral Hall and its folk art museum
 * "Liwan's Wonderful Scenery": Liwan Lake
 * "Science City, Splendid as Brocade"
 * "Wetlands Singing at Night": Nansha Wetlands Park

Parks and gardens

 * Baiyun Mountain
 * Nansha Wetland Park
 * People's Park
 * South China Botanical Garden
 * Yuexiu Park
 * Guangdong Tree Park
 * Dongshanhu Park
 * Liuhuahu Park
 * Liwanhu Park
 * Luhu Park
 * Martyrs' Park
 * Pearl River Park
 * Yuntai Garden
 * Shimen National Forest Park
 * Haizhu Lake Park

Tourist attractions
Guangzhou attracts more than 223 million visitors each year, and the total revenue of the tourism exceeded 400 billion in 2018. There are many tourist attractions, including:

 * Canton Tower
 * Chen Clan Ancestral Hall, housing Guangzhou's folk art museum
 * Chime-Long Paradise
 * Chime-Long Waterpark
 * Guangdong Provincial Museum
 * Mulberry Park, public center which demonstrates mulberry growing and silk making
 * Museum of the Mausoleum of the Nanyue King
 * Peasant Movement Training Institute, an important Maoist site
 * Sacred Heart Cathedral (Stone House)
 * Temple of Bright Filial Piety (Guangxiao)
 * Temple of the Six Banyan Trees (Liurong), site of the Flowery Pagoda
 * Sanyuan Palace
 * Shamian or Shameen Island, the old trading compound
 * Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, site of Guangzhou's former presidential palace
 * Xiguan (Saikwan), the western suburbs of the old city
 * Xiguan (Saikwan), the western suburbs of the old city

Pedestrian streets
In every district there are many shopping areas where people can walk on the sidewalks; however most of them are not set as pedestrian streets. The popular pedestrian streets are:

 * Beijing Road pedestrian street
 * Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street
 * Huacheng Square (Flower City Square)

Malls and shopping centers
There are many malls and shopping centers in Guangzhou. The majority of the new malls are located in the Tianhe district.

 * 101 Dynamics
 * China Plaza
 * Liwan Plaza
 * Teem Plaza
 * Victory Plaza
 * Wanguo Plaza
 * Grandview Mall (Grandview Mall Aquarium)
 * Wanda square
 * Happy Valley
 * TaiKoo Hui
 * Parc Central
 * OneLinkWalk
 * Rock Square
 * Aeon Mall
 * GT Land Plaza
 * IFC Plaza
 * IGC Mall
 * Mall of the World
 * K11
 * Fashion Tianhe

Major buildings

 * CITIC Plaza
 * Canton Tower
 * Guangzhou Circle Mansion
 * Guangdong Olympic Stadium
 * Guangzhou Opera House
 * Guangzhou TV Tower
 * Pearl River Tower
 * The Twin Towers:
 * Guangzhou International Finance Center (West)
 * The CTF Guangzhou (East)

Media
Guangzhou has two local radio stations: the provincial Radio Guangdong and the municipal Radio Guangzhou. Together they broadcast in more than a dozen channels. The primary language of both stations is Cantonese. Traditionally only one channel of Radio Guangdong is dedicated to Mandarin Chinese. However, in recent years there has been an increase in Mandarin programs on most Cantonese channels. Radio stations from cities around Guangzhou mainly broadcast in Cantonese and can be received in different parts of the city, depending on the radio stations' locations and transmission power. The Beijing-based China National Radio also broadcasts Mandarin programs in the city. Radio Guangdong has a 30-minute weekly English programs, Guangdong Today, which is broadcast globally through the World Radio Network. Daily English news programs are also broadcast by Radio Guangdong.

Guangzhou has some of the most notable Chinese-language newspapers and magazines in mainland China, most of which are published by three major newspaper groups in the city, the Guangzhou Daily Press Group, Nanfang Press Corporation, and the Yangcheng Evening News Group. The two leading newspapers of the city are Guangzhou Daily and Southern Metropolis Daily. The former, with a circulation of 1.8 million, has been China's most successful newspaper for 14 years in terms of advertising revenue, while Southern Metropolis Daily is considered one of the most liberal newspapers in mainland China. In addition to Guangzhou's Chinese-language publications, there are a few English magazines and newspapers. The most successful is That's Guangzhou, which started more than a decade ago and has since blossomed into That's PRD, producing expatriate magazines in Beijing and Shanghai as well. It also produces In the Red.

Education and research
The Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center, also known as Guangzhou University Town, is a large tertiary education complex located in the southeast suburbs of Guangzhou. It occupies the entirety of Xiaoguwei Island in Panyu District, covering an area of about 18 km2. The complex accommodates campuses from ten higher education institutions and can eventually accommodate up to 200,000 students, 20,000 teachers, and 50,000 staff.

As of June 2023, Guangzhou hosts 84 institutions of higher education (excluding adult colleges), ranking 2nd nationwide after Beijing and 1st in South China region. The city has many highly ranked educational institutions, with seven universities listed in 147 National Key Universities under the Double First-Class Construction, ranking fourth nationwide (after Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing). Guangzhou is also an important hub for international students and it was ranked 110th globally by the QS Best Student Cities Rankings in 2023.

Guangzhou is a major Asia-Pacific R&D hub, ranking 8th globally, 4th in the Asia & Oceania regions after (Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing) and 1st in South Central China region.

The Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center's higher education campuses are as follows:
 * Guangdong Pharmaceutical University
 * Guangdong University of Foreign Studies
 * Guangdong University of Technology
 * Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts
 * Guangzhou University
 * Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine
 * South China Normal University
 * South China University of Technology
 * Sun Yat-sen University
 * Xinghai Conservatory of Music

Guangzhou's other fully accredited and degree-granting universities and colleges include:
 * Guangdong Institute of Science and Technology
 * Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University
 * Guangdong University of Finance & Economics
 * Guangdong University of Finance
 * Guangzhou College of South China University of Technology
 * Guangzhou Medical University
 * Guangzhou Sports University
 * Jinan University
 * South China Agricultural University
 * Southern Medical University
 * Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering

The two main comprehensive libraries are Guangzhou Library and Sun Yat-sen Library of Guangdong Province. Guangzhou Library is a public library in Guangzhou. The library has moved to a new building in Zhujiang New Town, which fully opened on June 23, 2013. Sun Yat-sen Library of Guangdong Province has the largest collection of ancient books in Southern China.

Notable people

 * Choh Hao Li (1913–1987), American biochemist, expert on hormones
 * Zhi Cong Li (born 1993), racing driver
 * Xiao Ping Liang (born 1959), internationally exhibited calligrapher
 * Kuang Sunmou (1863–?), railway engineer, businessman, and bureaucrat
 * Bolo Yeung (born July 3, 1946), Hong Kong martial artist, competitive bodybuilder, and film actor
 * Qi Yuwu (born November 28, 1976), actor based in Singapore
 * Donnie Yen (born 27 July 1963), Hong Kong martial artist, action director and choreographer, and film director and actor

Consulates General/consulates
As of April 2023, Guangzhou hosts 68 foreign consulates-general/consulates, excluding the Hong Kong and Macao trade office, making it one of the major cities to host more than 50 foreign representatives in China after Beijing and Shanghai.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Guangzhou


text:
Genitive case

In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can also serve purposes indicating other relationships. For example, some verbs may feature arguments in the genitive case; and the genitive case may also have adverbial uses (see adverbial genitive).

The genitive construction includes the genitive case, but is a broader category. Placing a modifying noun in the genitive case is one way of indicating that it is related to a head noun, in a genitive construction. However, there are other ways to indicate a genitive construction. For example, many Afroasiatic languages place the head noun (rather than the modifying noun) in the construct state.

Possessive grammatical constructions, including the possessive case, may be regarded as subsets of the genitive construction. For example, the genitive construction "pack of dogs” is similar, but not identical in meaning to the possessive case "dogs' pack" (and neither of these is entirely interchangeable with "dog pack", which is neither genitive nor possessive). Modern English is an example of a language that has a possessive case rather than a conventional genitive case. That is, Modern English indicates a genitive construction with either the possessive clitic suffix "-", or a prepositional genitive construction such as "x of y". However, some irregular English pronouns do have possessive forms which may more commonly be described as genitive (see English possessive). The names of the astronomical constellations have genitive forms which are used in star names, for example the star Mintaka in the constellation Orion (genitive Orionis) is also known as Delta Orionis or 34 Orionis.

Many languages have a genitive case, including Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Basque, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, Georgian, German, Greek, Gothic, Hungarian, Icelandic, Irish, Kannada, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malayalam, Nepali, Romanian, Sanskrit, Scottish Gaelic, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, all Slavic languages except Macedonian, and most of the Turkic languages.

Functions
Depending on the language, specific varieties of genitive-noun–main-noun relationships may include: Depending on the language, some of the relationships mentioned above have their own distinct cases different from the genitive.
 * possession (see possessive case, possessed case):
 * inalienable possession ("Janet's height", "Janet's existence", "Janet's long fingers")
 * alienable possession ("Janet's jacket", "Janet's drink")
 * relationship indicated by the noun being modified ("Janet's husband")
 * composition (see Partitive):
 * substance ("a wheel of cheese")
 * elements ("a group of men")
 * source ("a portion of the food")
 * participation in an action:
 * as an agent ("She benefited from her father's love") – this is called the subjective genitive (Compare "Her father loved her", where Her father is the subject.)
 * as a patient ("the love of music") – this is called the objective genitive (Compare "She loves music", where music is the object.)
 * origin ("men of Rome")
 * reference ("the capital of the Republic" or "the Republic's capital")
 * description ("man of honour", "day of reckoning")
 * compounds ("doomsday" ("doom's day")
 * Scottish Gaelic "ball coise" = "football", where "coise" = gen. of "cas", "foot")
 * apposition (the city of Rome)

Possessive pronouns are distinct pronouns, found in Indo-European languages such as English, that function like pronouns inflected in the genitive. They are considered separate pronouns if contrasting to languages where pronouns are regularly inflected in the genitive. For example, English my is either a separate possessive adjective or an irregular genitive of I, while in Finnish, for example, minun is regularly agglutinated from minu- "I" and -n (genitive).

In some languages, nouns in the genitive case also agree in case with the nouns they modify (that is, it is marked for two cases). This phenomenon is called suffixaufnahme.

In some languages, nouns in the genitive case may be found in inclusio – that is, between the main noun's article and the noun itself.

English
Old English had a genitive case, which has left its mark in modern English in the form of the possessive ending 's (now sometimes referred to as the "Saxon genitive"), as well as possessive adjective forms such as his, their, etc., and in certain words derived from adverbial genitives such as once and afterwards. (Other Old English case markers have generally disappeared completely.) The modern English possessive forms are not normally considered to represent a grammatical case, although they are sometimes referred to as genitives or as belonging to a possessive case. One of the reasons that the status of 's as a case ending is often rejected is that it does not behave as such, but rather as a clitic marking that indicates that a dependency relationship exists between phrases. One can say the King's war, but also the King of France's war, where the genitive marker is attached to the full noun phrase the King of France, whereas case markers are normally attached to the head of a phrase. In languages having a true genitive case, such as Old English, this example may be expressed as þes cynges wyrre of France, literally "the King's war of France", with the 's attaching to the King.

Finnic genitives and accusatives
Finnic languages (Finnish, Estonian, etc.) have genitive cases.

In Finnish, prototypically the genitive is marked with -n, e.g. maa – maan "country – of the country". The stem may change, however, with consonant gradation and other reasons. For example, in certain words ending in consonants, -e- is added, e.g. mies – miehen "man – of the man", and in some, but not all words ending in -i, the -i is changed to an -e-, to give -en, e.g. lumi – lumen "snow – of the snow". The genitive is used extensively, with animate and inanimate possessors. In addition to the genitive, there is also a partitive case (marked -ta/-tä or -a/-ä) used for expressing that something is a part of a larger mass, e.g. joukko miehiä "a group of men".

In Estonian, the genitive marker -n has elided with respect to Finnish. Thus, the genitive always ends with a vowel, and the singular genitive is sometimes (in a subset of words ending with a vocal in nominative) identical in form to nominative.

In Finnish, in addition to the uses mentioned above, there is a construct where the genitive is used to mark a surname. For example, Juhani Virtanen can be also expressed Virtasen Juhani ("Juhani of the Virtanens").

A complication in Finnic languages is that the accusative case -(e)n is homophonic to the genitive case. This case does not indicate possession, but is a syntactic marker for the object, additionally indicating that the action is telic (completed). In Estonian, it is often said that only a "genitive" exists. However, the cases have completely different functions, and the form of the accusative has developed from *-(e)m. (The same sound change has developed into a synchronic mutation of a final m into n in Finnish, e.g. genitive sydämen vs. nominative sydän.) This homophony has exceptions in Finnish, where a separate accusative -(e)t is found in pronouns, e.g. kenet "who (telic object)", vs. kenen "whose".

A difference is also observed in some of the related Sámi languages, where the pronouns and the plural of nouns in the genitive and accusative are easily distinguishable from each other, e.g., kuä'cǩǩmi "eagles' (genitive plural)" and kuä'cǩǩmid "eagles (accusative plural)" in Skolt Sami.

Articles
The genitive singular definite article for masculine and neuter nouns is des, while the feminine and plural definite article is der. The indefinite articles are eines for masculine and neuter nouns, and einer for feminine and plural nouns (although the bare form cannot be used in the plural, it manifests in keiner, meiner, etc.)

Nouns
Singular masculine and neuter nouns of the strong declension in the genitive case are marked with -(e)s. Generally, one-syllable nouns favour the -es ending, and it is obligatory with nouns ending with a sibilant such as s or z. Otherwise, a simple -s ending is usual. Feminine and plural nouns remain uninflected: Singular masculine nouns (and one neuter noun) of the weak declension are marked with an -(e)n (or rarely -(e)ns) ending in the genitive case:
 * des Beitrags (of the contribution) – masculine
 * der Blume (of the flower) – feminine
 * des Landes (of the country) – neuter
 * der Bäume (of the trees) – plural
 * des Raben (of the raven) – masculine
 * des Herzens (of the heart) – neuter

Adjectives
The declension of adjectives in the genitive case is as follows:

Personal pronouns
The genitive personal pronouns are quite rare and either very formal, literary or outdated. They are as follows (with comparison to the nominative pronouns): Some examples:
 * Würden Sie statt meiner gehen? (Would you go instead of me?)
 * Wir sind ihrer nicht würdig (We are not worthy of her/them)
 * Ich werde euer gedenken (I will commemorate you)

Relative pronouns
Unlike the personal ones, the genitive relative pronouns are in regular use and are as follows (with comparison to the nominative relative pronouns): Some examples:
 * Kennst du den Schüler, dessen Mutter eine Hexe ist? (Do you know the student whose mother is a witch?) – masculine
 * Sie ist die Frau, deren Mann Rennfahrer ist (She is the woman whose husband is a racer) – feminine

Nouns
The genitive case is often used to show possession or the relation between nouns: A simple s is added to the end of a name:
 * die Farbe des Himmels (the colour of the sky)
 * Deutschland liegt im Herzen Europas (Germany lies in the heart of Europe)
 * der Tod seiner Frau (the death of his wife)
 * die Entwicklung dieser Länder (the development of these countries)
 * Claudias Buch (Claudia's book)

Prepositions
The genitive case is also commonly found after certain prepositions:
 * innerhalb eines Tages (within a day)
 * statt des Hemdes (instead of the shirt)
 * während unserer Abwesenheit (during our absence)
 * jenseits der Berge (beyond the mountains)

Adjectives
The genitive case can sometimes be found in connection with certain adjectives:
 * Wir sind uns dessen bewusst (We are aware of that)
 * Er ist des Diebstahls schuldig (He is guilty of theft)
 * Das Kind ist der Ruhe bedürftig (The child is in need of calmness)
 * Ich werde dieses Lebens überdrüssig (I am growing weary of this life)

Verbs
The genitive case is occasionally found in connection with certain verbs (some of which require an accusative before the genitive); they are mostly either formal or legal:
 * Die Stadt erfreut sich eines günstigen Klimas (The city enjoys a favourable climate)
 * Gedenken Sie der Toten des Krieges (Remember those who died in (the) war)
 * Wer klagte ihn des Mordes an? (Who accused him of murder?)
 * Man verdächtigt euch des Betrugs (Someone suspects you of (committing) fraud)

Greek
The ablative case of Indo-European was absorbed into the genitive in Classical Greek. This added to the usages of the "genitive proper", the usages of the "ablatival genitive". The genitive occurs with verbs, adjectives, adverbs and prepositions. See also Genitive absolute.

Hungarian
The Hungarian genitive is constructed using the suffix -é.
 * madár ('bird'); madáré ('bird's')

The genitive -é suffix is only used with the predicate of a sentence: it serves the role of mine, yours, hers, etc. The possessed object is left in the nominative case. For example:
 * A csőr a madáré ('The beak is the bird's').

If the possessor is not the predicate of the sentence, the genitive is not used. Instead, the possessive suffixes (-(j)e or -(j)a in the third person singular, depending on vowel harmony) mark the possessed object. The possessor is left in the nominative if it directly precedes the possessed object (otherwise it takes a dative -nak/-nek suffix). For example:
 * csőr ('beak'); csőre ('its beak')
 * a madár csőre/csőre a madárnak ('the bird's beak')

In addition, the suffix -i ('of') is also used. For example:
 * madár ('bird'); madári ('avian', 'of bird(s)')

Japanese
Japanese construes the genitive by using the grammatical particle no の. It can be used to show a number of relationships to the head noun. For example:
 * 猫の手 neko-no te ("cat's paw")
 * 学生の一人 gakusei-no hitori ("one of the students)
 * 金の指輪 kin-no yubiwa ("a ring of gold")
 * 京都のどこ Kyouto-no doko ("where of (in) Kyoto")
 * 富士の山 Fuji-no yama ("the mountain of Fuji" [Mt. Fuji])

The archaic genitive case particle -ga ～が is still retained in certain expressions, place names, and dialects. Possessive ga can also be written as a small ke (ヶ), for example in Kasumigaoka (霞ヶ丘).

Typically, languages have nominative case nouns converting into genitive case. It has been found, however, that the Kansai dialect of Japanese will in rare cases allow accusative case to convert to genitive, if specific conditions are met in the clause in which the conversion appears. This is referred to as "Accusative-Genitive conversion."

Latin
The genitive is one of the cases of nouns and pronouns in Latin. Latin genitives still have certain modern scientific uses:
 * Scientific names of living things sometimes contain genitives, as in the plant name Buddleja davidii, meaning "David's buddleia". Here davidii is the genitive of Davidius, a Latinized version of the Hebrew name. It is not capitalized because it is the second part of a binomial name.
 * Names of astronomical constellations are Latin, and the genitives of their names are used in naming objects in those constellations, as in the Bayer designation of stars. For example, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo is called Alpha Virginis, which is to say "Alpha of Virgo", as virginis is the genitive of virgō. Plural forms and adjectives also decline accordingly: plural Alpha Piscium (Pisces) and Alpha Canum Venaticorum (Canes Venatici) versus singular Alpha Piscis Austrini (Piscis Austrinus) and Alpha Canis Majoris (Canis Major). Astronomy manuals often list the genitive forms, as some are easy to get wrong even with a basic knowledge of Latin, e.g. Vela, which is a neuter plural not a feminine singular: Delta Velorum not *Delta Velae.
 * Modus operandi, which can be translated to English as "mode of operation", in which operandi is a singular genitive gerund (i.e. "of operation"), not a plural of operandus as is sometimes mistakenly assumed.

Irish
The Irish language also uses a genitive case (tuiseal ginideach). For example, in the phrase bean an tí (woman of the house), tí is the genitive case of teach, meaning "house". Another example is barr an chnoic, "top of the hill", where cnoc means "hill", but is changed to chnoic, which also incorporates lenition.

Mandarin
In Mandarin Chinese, the genitive case is made by use of the particle 的 (de).

However, about persons in relation to oneself, 的 is often dropped when the context allows for it to be easily understood.

Persian
Old Persian had a true genitive case inherited from Proto-Indo-European. By the time of Middle Persian, the genitive case had been lost and replaced by an analytical construction which is now called Ezāfe. This construction was inherited by New Persian, and was also later borrowed into numerous other Iranic, Turkic and Indo-Aryan languages of Western and South Asia.

Semitic languages
Genitive case marking existed in Proto-Semitic, Akkadian, and Ugaritic. It indicated possession, and it is preserved today only in Arabic.

Akkadian

 * Nominative: šarrum (king)
 * Genitive: aššat šarrim (wife of king = king's wife)

Arabic
Called المجرور al-majrūr (meaning "dragged") in Arabic, the genitive case functions both as an indication of ownership (ex. the door of the house) and for nouns following a preposition.

 * Nominative: ٌبيت baytun (a house)
 * Genitive: ٍبابُ بيت bābu baytin (door of a house) ِبابُ البيت bābu l-bayti (door of the house)

The Arabic genitive marking also appears after prepositions.
 * e.g. ٍبابٌ لبيت bābun li-baytin (a door for a house)

The Semitic genitive should not be confused with the pronominal possessive suffixes that exist in all the Semitic languages

 * e.g. Arabic بيتي bayt-ī (my house) َكتابُك kitābu-ka (your [masc.] book).

Slavic languages
With the exception of Bulgarian and Macedonian, all Slavic languages decline the nouns and adjectives in accordance with the genitive case using a variety of endings depending on the word's lexical category, its gender, number (singular or plural) and in some cases meaning. For instance, in Russian Broutona (lit. Broughton's) island name, its genitive/possessive case is created by adding a affix to the explorer's name.

Possessives
To indicate possession the ending of the noun indicating the possessor changes depending on the word's ending in the nominative case. For example, to a, u, i, or y in Polish, а, я, ы, or и in Russian, а, я, y, ю, і, и or ей in Ukrainian, and similar cases in other Slavic languages.

 * Nominative: (pol.) "Oto Anton" / (rus.) "Вот Антон" / (ukr.) "Ось Антон" ("Here is Anton").
 * Genitive: (pol.) "Oto obiad Antonа" / (rus.) "Вот обед Антона" / (ukr.) "Ось oбід Антона" ("Here is Anton's lunch").

Possessives can also be formed by the construction (pol.) "u [subject] jest [object]" / (rus.) "У [subject] есть [object]"/ (ukr.) "у(в) [subject] є [object]"

 * Nominative: (pol.) "Oto Anton" / (rus.) "Вот Антон" / (ukr.) "Ось Антон" ("Here is Anton").
 * Genitive: (pol.) "u Antonа jest obiad / (rus.) "У Антона есть обед" / (ukr.) "У(В) Антона є обід" ("Anton has a lunch", literally: "(There) is a lunch at Anton's").

In sentences where the possessor includes an associated pronoun, the pronoun also changes:

 * Nominative: (pol.) Oto mój brat / (rus.) "Вот мой брат"/ (ukr.) "От мій брат" ("Here is my brother").
 * Genitive: (pol.) "u mojego bratа jest obiad / (rus.) "У моего брата есть обед" / (ukr.) "У мого брата є обід" ("My brother has a lunch", literally: "(There) is a lunch at my_brother's").

And in sentences denoting negative possession, the ending of the object noun also changes:

 * Nominative: (pol.) "Oto Irena" / (rus.) "Вот Ирена" / (ukr.) "От Ірена" ("Here is Irene").
 * Genitive: (pol.) "Irena nie ma obiadu ("Irene does not have a lunch") or (pol.) "u Ireny nie ma obiadu ("(There) is no lunch at Irene's")

The Polish phrase "nie ma [object]" can work both as a negation of having [object] or a negation of an existence of [object], but the meaning of the two sentences and its structure is different. (In the first case [subject] is Irene, and in the second case [subject] is virtual, it is "the space" at Irene's place, not Irene herself)
 * Genitive: (rus.) "У Ирены нет обеда" ("Irene does not have a lunch", literally: "(There) is no lunch at Irene's").

The Russian word "нет" is a contraction of "не" + "есть". In Russian there is no distinction between [subject] not having an [object] and [object] not being present at [subject]'s.
 * Genitive: (ukr.) "Ірена не має обіду ("Irene does not have a lunch") or (ukr.) "y Ірени нема(є) обіду ("At Irene's does not have a lunch")

Note the difference between the  spelling "не має [object]" and "нема(є) [object]" in both cases.

To express negation
The genitive case is also used in sentences expressing negation, even when no possessive relationship is involved. The ending of the subject noun changes just as it does in possessive sentences. The genitive, in this sense, can only be used to negate nominative, accusative and genitive sentences, and not other cases.

 * Nominative: (pol.) "(Czy) Maria jest w domu?" / (rus.) "Мария дома?" / (Чи) Марія (є) вдома? ("Is Maria at home?").
 * Genitive: (pol.) "Marii nie ma w domu" ("Maria is not at home", literally: "[virtual subject] has no Maria at home")
 * Genitive: (rus.) "Марии нет дома" ("Maria is not at home", literally: "Of Maria there is none at home.").
 * Genitive: (ukr.) "Марії нема(є) вдома" ("Maria is not at home", literally: "[virtual subject] has no Maria at home.")

 * Accusative: (pol.) "Mogę rozczytać twoje pismo" / (rus.) Могу (про)читать твой почерк / (ukr.) Можу (про)читати твій почерк ("I can read your handwriting")
 * Genitive: (pol.) "Nie mogę rozczytać twojego pisma" / (rus.) "Не могу (про)читать твоего почерка" / (ukr.) "Не можу (про)читати твого почерку" ("I can't read your handwriting")

Use of genitive for negation is obligatory in Slovene, Polish and Old Church Slavonic. Some East Slavic languages ( e.g. Russian and Belarusian) employ either the accusative or genitive for negation, although the genitive is more commonly used. In Czech, Slovak and Serbo-Croatian, negating with the genitive case is perceived as rather archaic and the accusative is preferred, but genitive negation in these languages is still not uncommon, especially in music and literature.

Partial direct object
The genitive case is used with some verbs and mass nouns to indicate that the action covers only a part of the direct object (having a function of non-existing partitive case), whereas similar constructions using the Accusative case denote full coverage. Compare the sentences:

 * Genitive: (pol.) "Napiłem się wody" / (rus.) "Я напился воды" / (ukr.) "Я напився води" ("I drank water," i.e. "I drank some water, part of the water available")
 * Accusative: (pol.) "Wypiłem wodę" / (rus.) "Я выпил воду / (ukr.) "Я випив воду ("I drank the water," i.e. "I drank all the water, all the water in question")

In Russian, special partitive case or sub-case is observed for some uncountable nouns which in some contexts have preferred alternative form on -у/ю instead of standard genitive on -а/я: выпил чаю ('drank some tea'), but сорта чая ('sorts of tea').

Prepositional constructions
The genitive case is also used in many prepositional constructions. (Usually when some movement or change of state is involved, and when describing the source / destination of the movement. Sometimes also when describing the manner of acting.)
 * Czech prepositions using genitive case: od (from), z, ze (from), do (into), bez (without), kromě (excepting), místo (instead of), podle (after, according to), podél (along), okolo (around), u (near, by), vedle (beside), během (during), pomocí (using, by the help of), stran (as regards) etc.
 * Polish prepositions using genitive case: od (from), z, ze (from), do, w (into), na (onto), bez (without), zamiast (instead of), wedle (after, according to), wzdłuż (along), około (around), u (near, by), koło (beside), podczas (during), etc.
 * Russian prepositions using genitive case: от (from), с, со (from), до (before, up to), без (without), кроме (excepting), вместо (instead of), после (after), вдоль (along), около (around), у (near, by), во время (during), насчёт (regarding), etc.

Turkish
The Turkish genitive, formed with a genitive suffix for the possessor, is used in combination with a possessive for the possessed entity, formed with a possessive suffix. For example, in "my mother's mother", the possessor is "my mother", and the possessed entity is "[her] mother". In Turkish:
 * Nominative: anne ("mother");
 * First-person possessive: annem ("my mother");
 * Third-person possessive: annesi ("[someone]'s mother");
 * Genitive of annem: annemin ("my mother's");
 * Genitive and possessive combined: annemin annesi ("my mother's mother", i.e., "my maternal grandmother").

Albanian
The genitive in Albanian is formed with the help of clitics. For example:

 * Nominative: libër ('book'); vajzë ('girl');
 * Genitive: libri i vajzës (the girl's book)

If the possessed object is masculine, the clitic is i. If the possessed object is feminine, the clitic is e. If the possessed object is plural, the clitic is e regardless of the gender.

The genitive is used with some prepositions: me anë ('by means of'), nga ana ('on behalf of', 'from the side of'), për arsye ('due to'), për shkak ('because of'), me përjashtim ('with the exception of'), në vend ('instead of').

Armenian
The genitive in Armenian is generally formed by adding "-ի":

Nominative: աղջիկ ('girl'); գիրք ('book');

Genitive: աղջիկի գիրքը ("the girl's book").

However, there are certain words that are not formed this way. For example, words with ուն change to ան:

Nominative: տուն ('house'), Genitive: տան ("house's").

Kannada
In Kannada, the genitive case-endings are:

for masculine or feminine nouns ending in "ಅ" (a): ನ (na)
 * Examples: sūrya-na ('of the sun')

for neuter nouns ending in "ಅ" (a): ದ (da)
 * Examples: mara-da ('of the tree')

for all nouns ending in "ಇ" (i), "ಈ" (ī), "ಎ" (e), or "ಏ" (ē): ಅ (a)
 * Examples: mane-y-a ('of the house'; a linking "y" is added between the stem and the suffix)

for all nouns ending in "ಉ" (u), "ಊ" (ū), "ಋ" (r̥), or "ೠ" (r̥̄): ಇನ (ina)
 * Examples; guru-v-ina ('of the teacher'; a linking "v" is added between the stem and the suffix)

Most postpositions in Kannada take the genitive case.

Tamil
In Tamil, the genitive case ending is the word உடைய or இன், which signifies possession. Depending on the last letter of the noun, the genitive case endings may vary.

If the last letter is a consonant (மெய் எழுத்து), like க், ங், ச், ஞ், ட், ண், த், ந், ப், ம், ய், ர், ல், வ், ழ், then the suffix உடைய/இன் gets added. *Examples: His: அவன் + உடைய = அவனுடைய, Doctor's: மருத்துவர் + உடைய = மருத்துவருடைய, மருத்துவர் + இன் = மருத்துவரின் Kumar's: குமார் + உடைய = குமாருடைய, குமார்+ இன் = குமாரின்

title: Genitive case