Guangzhou was once known as Canton, and because of its strategic location on China's south coast, it has been a real hot-bed for foreign trade over the years. CGTN's Ge Yunfei finds out about the city's tradition of doing business with other countries.

Who was the world's richest businessman in the early 19th century? A Chinese merchant named Wu Bingjian, who lived and worked in China's southern city of Guangzhou. During the near century before the First Opium War ended in 1842, this capital city of the Guangdong Province was the only port in China permitted to do trade with the West. Wu was the leader of the 13 Hongs, or 13 factories, a monopoly in Guangzhou that was officially sanctioned to trade with foreigners.

LUO WENJING, DEPUTY DIRECTOR GUANGZHOU 13 HONGS MUSEUM "Chin-Chin, how you do, long time my no hab see you."

GE YUNFEI GUANGZHOU "I can secure long time before time, my no have come this shop."

You may not understand what we're talking about. But this is exactly how the merchants in Guangzhou communicated with their western counterparts two hundred years ago."

Luo Wenjing has been studying the history of the 13 Hongs and Guangzhou for two decades. He says being the Qing Dynasty's only region open to the world made Guangzhou a frontier in absorbing and introducing leading technologies from the West.

LUO WENJING, DEPUTY DIRECTOR GUANGZHOU 13 HONGS MUSEUM "Merchants of the 13 Hongs used every means to promote and spread the cowpox vaccination, saving millions of people's lives across China. They also introduced modern technologies like cartography, sailing, shipbuilding, artillery and gunpowder to China."

The history of Guangzhou city can be traced back two thousand years. And during the Tang Dynasty, almost 15 hundred years ago, it was an important international trading hub.

LUO WENJING, DEPUTY DIRECTOR GUANGZHOU 13 HONGS MUSEUM "Basically, for two thousand years, Guangzhou's trade connections with the world have never stopped. So people here have always seen the world with a global perspective."

In the past four decades, Guangdong Province has become a global sort of factory, producing almost everything. And at the same time Guangzhou has re-established itself as a global trading hub. Sai Joythis is an Indian businessman working for a Qatar company. He is one of the over five million foreigners that visits the city every year.

SAI JOYTHIS HEAD OF CHINA QUALITY RETAIL GROUP, QATAR "Guangdong Province has everything you know. If we don't buy from the factory of the world, then it's a big loss for us. We have to, there is no other option."

Rao Jiaxin and her boyfriend Zhang Fan opened this gym club in Guangzhou. They chose this city to operate their own brand of fitness apparel.

ZHANG FAN START-UP ENTREPRENEUR "We have many friends who are foreign designers. Every time they come to China to see fabric and clothing, Guangzhou is always their first choice. That's because Guangzhou has everything."

For people living here, their ancestors' talent of doing business seems to stay in their blood. Apart from the gym and clothing business, the young couple are also running a film and photography production base.

RAO JIAXIN START-UP ENTREPRENEUR "In Guangdong, people like doing business. I think Guangdong people dare to try new things, and they have the courage to explore and create something new."

ZHANG FAN START-UP ENTREPRENEUR "In this city there are so many opportunities before you but you have to act faster than others to seize your chance."

The young couple are just two of the over 20 million people living and working in the city. It's their pioneering spirit which has kept the city prosperous for centuries. Ge Yunfei, CGTN, Guangzhou.