Guiyang

Guiyang  is the capital of Guizhou Province, China. It is located in central Guizhou province, situated on the east of the Yungui  Plateau, and on the north bank of the Nanming River, a branch of the Wu River. The city has an elevation of about 1,100 meters. It has an area of 8,034 square kilometers. There the attractions are Hongfeng Lake (Red Maple Lake), Qingyan Ancient Town, Zhenshan Ethnic Village, Huaxi Park, Qianling Park, Jiaxiu Pavilion. Near Guiyang, Anshun city has several famous tourist sites: Huangguoshu Waterfalls, Dragon Palace Scenic Area, Tianxingqiao Scenic Area, Yunfeng Tunpu Scenic Area, Tianlong Tunpu Old Town.

History
The city was first constructed as early as 1283 AD during the Yuan Dynasty. It was originally called Shunyuan, meaning obeying the Yuan (the Mongol rulers). Originally the area was populated by non-Chinese. The Sui dynasty (AD 581- 618) had a commandery there, and the Tang dynasty (618 - 907) a prefecture. They were, however, no more than military outposts, and it was not until the Yuan (Mongol) invasion of southwest China in 1279 that the area was made the seat of an army and a "pacification office." Chinese settlement in the area also began at that time, and, under the Ming (1368 - 1644) and Qing (1644 - 1911) dynasties, the town became the seat of a superior prefecture named Guiyang.

Locally Guiyang was an important administrative and commercial center with two distinct merchant communities, consisting of the Sichuanese, who lived in the "new" northern part of the city, and those from Hunan, Guangdong, and Guangxi province, who lived in the "old" southern part. Nevertheless, until the Sino-Japanese War (1937 - 45), Guiyang was no more than the capital of one of China's least-developed provinces. As elsewhere in the southwest, considerable economic progress was made under the special circumstances of wartime. Road transport infrastructure with Kunming in Yunnan province and with Chongqing in Sichuan (China's wartime provisional capital) and into Hunan were established. Work was begun on a railway from Liuzhou in Guangxi, and after 1949 this development was accelerated. Guiyang has subsequently become a major provincial city and industrial base. In 1959 the rail network in Guangxi was completed, allowing seamless connection from Guizhou to Chongqing to the north, to Kunming to the west, and Changsha to the east.

Climate
An Aerial View of Jiaxiu LouGuiyang is temperate and humid, and has a subtropical monsoon climate, with fairly mild winters and warm summers. The seasons are not particularly distinct. Unseasonably warm or cold spells are common although temperatures rarely reach extremes. Average highs are 10c in January and 28c in July. Rain falls throughout the year, with occasional flurries in winter. It is also one of China's least sunny cities.

In the year of 2000, Guiyang had an average temperature of 13.9℃, lower than normal; the rainfall of 1424.5 mm, higher than normal; the sunshine time of 1124.5 hours, less 161 hours than usual years. The climates in all seasons are as follows: in the winter, dry and warm in early days, as well as cold, excessive rain and freezing snow in middle and later days; in the spring, lower average temperature, normal rainfall, excessive rain; in the summer, lower average temperature, excessive and well-distributed rainfall, no excessive rainstorm; in the autumn, lower average temperature, lower rainfall, usual sunshine time equally with the average value.