Guangdong and Guangxi owe their names to a Han county, Guangxin, “Broad Trust”, that stood around today’s Wuzhou; the Tropic of Cancer cuts through the city, and its workshops process more than 70 percent of the world’s synthetic gems.
广东和广西的名字都来自汉代的广信县,意为”广布恩信”,它就在今天的梧州一带;北回归线从这座城市穿过,而这里的作坊加工着全世界百分之七十以上的人工宝石。
Wuzhou is the first big city a traveller meets coming west from Guangdong, and it behaves like one of Guangdong’s. It speaks Cantonese, wraps its chicken in paper and opens its tea houses early.
梧州是从广东向西走遇到的第一座大城市,而它的言行像是广东的城市。它说粤语,用纸包鸡,茶楼开得很早。
Yet it belongs to Guangxi, and has been the hinge on which the two provinces turn since the Han.
然而它属于广西,而且自汉代起就是两广转动的枢轴。
The Hinge Called Broad Trust
一座叫”广信”的枢纽
When the Han conquered the Nanyue kingdom in 111 BCE, the emperor told his officials to “spread kindness and trust” over the newly opened Yue lands, and the county that took the name Guangxin became the seat of Cangwu Commandery, according to People’s Daily. From 106 BCE, for more than 300 years, Guangxin was the political, economic and cultural centre of Lingnan, according to Baidu Baike.
据《人民日报》介绍,汉朝公元前一一一年灭南越国后,皇帝要求官员在新开的粤地”广布恩信”,取名广信的县成了苍梧郡治。据百度百科介绍,从公元前一零六年起的三百多年里,广信一直是岭南的政治、经济和文化中心。
Its name then spread. When Wu split off a new province in 264 CE it called it Guangzhou, taking the “Guang” from Guangxin, and when the Song later divided the circuit of Guangnan into east and west, it used Guangxin as the geographical marker for the split, which is where the names Guangdong and Guangxi begin, according to Chinese Wikipedia and Aboluowang. Wuzhou and Guangdong’s Fengkai both claim the site, and one Chinese scholar has urged them to stop quarrelling over the label and develop it together, according to China Social Sciences Network.
它的名字后来传遍四方。据中文维基百科和阿波罗新闻网介绍,孙吴二六四年另立新州,取广信的”广”字称”广州”;宋代后来把广南路分为东西两路时,以广信为地理分界的参照,”广东””广西”之名由此而始。据中国社会科学网介绍,梧州和广东的封开都称那里是广信旧地,有学者呼吁两地不要再争这个文化符号,而应联手开发。
The hinge turned again under the Ming. The viceroy of the Two Guangs was proposed in 1452 by Yu Qian and made permanent in 1470, with his yamen in Wuzhou, on the border between the provinces and under the first viceroy, Han Yong, and the Qing kept it, according to Chinese Wikipedia.
到了明代,这个枢轴再次转动。据中文维基百科介绍,两广总督一四五二年由于谦奏请设立,一四七零年成为定制,衙门设在两广交界的梧州,首任总督是韩雍,清朝沿用了这一制度。
Little Hong Kong
“小香港”
Japan asked for Wuzhou first. In the peace talks of 1895 it demanded the port be opened, and Li Hongzhang refused on the grounds that the people of Xiangtan and Wuzhou had “always hated foreigners”, according to the Wuzhou tourism site. Britain got it two years later, by the Burma treaty of 4 February 1897, and the customs house opened on 4 June under a foreign commissioner, according to the same source and Baidu Baike.
最先开口要梧州的是日本。据梧州旅游网介绍,一八九五年议和时日方要求开放梧州,李鸿章以湘潭、梧州”土民向来最恨外人”为由拒绝。两年后英国如愿,一八九七年二月四日签订缅甸条约,六月四日海关在外籍税务司主持下开关,据同一来源和百度百科介绍。
The treaty even described the route, steamers from Hong Kong to Sanshui and Wuzhou, according to the Wuzhou tourism site. The British bought three hilltops on Zhushan for 24,000 copper cash coins and built their consulate there, and Guangxi did not get the hill back until 1928, according to Go Travelling World and The Paper.
条约甚至写明了航线,轮船由香港至三水、梧州,据梧州旅游网介绍。据旅游网站和澎湃新闻介绍,英国以二十四千铜钱买下珠山三个山头建领事署,直到一九二八年广西省政府才把它收回。
The old customs buildings went up in 1918 on 3,200 square metres, Wuzhou’s first large concrete structure, and were made a national protected site in 2013, according to Sina. By the late 1970s the city handled more than 60 percent of Guangxi’s foreign trade, which earned it the nickname “Little Hong Kong”, according to China Today. Its inland port moved 109.59 million tonnes in 2024, up 36.2 percent, according to the 2024 communiqué.
据新浪介绍,老海关建筑群一九一八年建成,占地三千二百平方米,是梧州第一座大量使用水泥的楼房,二零一三年列为全国重点文物保护单位。据《今日中国》介绍,到二十世纪七十年代末,梧州对外贸易额一直占全广西的百分之六十以上,因此有”小香港”之称。据二零二四年统计公报,梧州内河港口货物吞吐量一亿零九百五十九万吨,增长百分之三十六点二。
Cutting Light
切割光芒
The synthetic gem trade began in a school-run workshop more than 40 years ago, according to Dili360. Today more than 100 billion stones a year are processed and traded in Wuzhou, through 1,200 gem-cutting firms and 400 jewellery firms, and the industry was worth ¥12.5 billion in 2023, employing more than 40,000 people, according to Xinhua and China Daily.
据《地理中国》介绍,人工宝石产业起步于四十多年前的一间校办工厂。据新华网和中国日报网介绍,如今梧州每年加工、交易的宝石超过一千亿粒,有宝石加工企业一千二百家、饰品加工企业四百家,二零二三年产业综合产值一百二十五亿元,从业人员四万多人。
Tea is the older business. Output was 21,200 tonnes in 2025, up 15.0 percent, from 25,480 hectares of tea gardens, up 10.3 percent, according to the 2025 communiqué, and Wuzhou is the home of Liubao tea, according to Oweidata. GDP reached ¥171.98 billion in 2025, up 5.7 percent, with a nominal growth of 6.00 percent that was the fastest of any Guangxi city, according to the communiqué and NetEase.
茶是更古老的生意。据二零二五年统计公报,二零二五年茶叶产量二点一二万吨,增长百分之十五点零,茶园面积二万五千四百八十公顷,增长百分之十点三;据鸥维数据介绍,梧州是六堡茶的原产地。据统计公报和网易介绍,二零二五年全市生产总值一千七百一十九点七九亿元,增长百分之五点七,名义增速百分之六点零零,居广西各市之首。
The resident population was 2.8227 million at the end of 2025, with 19,800 births and 21,800 deaths, a natural growth of minus 0.73 per thousand, according to the same communiqué. The fastest trains take 1 hour 20 minutes from Wuzhou South to Guangzhou South, according to Ctrip timetables.
据同一份统计公报,二零二五年末常住人口二百八十二点二七万人,全年出生一点九八万人、死亡二点一八万人,自然增长率千分之负零点七三。据携程时刻表,从梧州南站乘高铁到广州南站最快一小时二十分钟。
According to Baidu Baike, the Tropic of Cancer runs through Bataotang, a cluster of lake, islets and small hills on the south bank of the Xun River, and in 2013 the site was turned into an astronomy park because of that line.
据百度百科介绍,北回归线从浔江南岸的八宝塘穿过,那里由湖湾、小岛和小山组成,二零一三年因这条线被辟为天文公园。
