GUANGZHOU / GUANGDONG

Guangzhou, the capital of the most populated province in the nation, Guangdong, has long been China’s main commercial and trading center since the 3rd century when it was regularly visited by European traders who named the region, “Canton”. Guangzhou has a subtropical monsoon climate, offering farmers year-round harvest, and residents to the metropolis never-ending fields of flowers, leading many to call the city, “City of Flowers”.

With its proximity to the administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau, Guangzhou is indeed a city in which business is always in bloom, and due to this, the metropolis has expanded at unprecedented rates. Having more than 4,000 years of recorded history, China, occupying nearly the entire East Asian landmass, is the largest of all Asian countries and the most populous nation on earth. Often mistaken as ethnically homogenous, China is one of the most diverse and complex countries, hosting an array of indigenous peoples.

Despite experiencing one of the greatest Jesus movements in history, with over 100 million Chinese coming to faith since the advent of communism in 1949, Chinese believers, as well as Uyghur Muslims, are facing intense persecution in this hour. With Xi Jinping’s vision of “One Belt, One Road”, and reach for global dominance, an opportunity presents itself for the nation of red and its leaders to fully surrender to King Jesus and wash the earth in the blood of the Lamb.