Western Guangdong

Western Guangdong is in Guangdong Province in China.

Cities

• 1 Maoming
• 2 Huazhou
• 3 Gaozhou
• 4 Yangjiang
• 5 Zhanjiang, former French colony and now a major sea port
• 6 Leizhou , the city of stone dogs. The old capital of the region
• 7 Xuwen , gateway to the island province of Hainan

Other destinations

• 1 Donghai Island, known for its long sea beach
• 2 Naozhou Island, home to a sea turtle sanctuary

Talk

The area is home to multiple dialects that are closely related to Cantonese, though mutual intelligibility with standard Cantonese varies. While the dialect spoken in Zhanjiang should not pose too much of a challenge, the dialects spoken in Yangjiang and Huazhou can be rather tricky for speakers of standard Cantonese to understand. Nevertheless, most speakers of these dialects understand and speak standard Cantonese too. The local dialect in Leizhou is a variant of Min Chinese that is closely related to Hainanese, though not mutually intelligible.

As with elsewhere in China, Mandarin is the official language and spoken by most younger locals.

Get in

A fairly large number of "conventional" (overnight) trains arrive to Western Guangdong from all over China. Some terminate in Zhanjiang; other run the length of the Leizhou Peninsula, with stops at Leizhou and Xuwen, and then continue on a ferry to Hainan.

In the late 2018, high-speed train service started on the new line connecting Guangzhou South Station with Maoming and Zhanjiang West Station.

There is a fairly well served airport in Zhanjiang, connected by direct flights with China's main air hubs.