Guangzhou has inherited a mixed cream of the Eastern and Western, traditional as well as modern cultures, labeled as Lingnan culture with a distinctive style of music, puppet show, opera, painting, literature, architecture, cuisine, social norms and customs, ways of life and southern charisma.

For example, Lingnan Painting School is characterized with a strong regional heritage, well known for its life paintings and Lingnan sceneries. Xiguan traditional houses, aged buildings in Western style and sotto porticos stand side by side with modern high-rises along the streets.

Guangzhou's fine art crafts, such as carvings, porcelains, ceramics carvings and embroideries are popular both at home and abroad. Lingnan culture is an important school of the traditional Chinese culture as is mentioned in the previous chapter.

Guangzhou is a place of talents and men of letters with a highly qualified population of migrants "hired" from all the parts of the country. Probably Guangzhou will hire more overseas brains in future.

What the most important is that there are more than 30 universities and colleges of all sorts, more than 400 research institutes and thousands of newly sprouted high-tech companies.

Guangzhou needs more talents to meet the market demand of its rapid economic and social development. Guangzhou Convention of Overseas Chinese Scholars in Science & Technology has been held annually since 1998 in order to attract overseas talents to do business or to settle down in Guangzhou.

As a would-be international metropolis, Guangzhou needs hundreds of its citizens versed in various foreign languages in order to communicate and to do business with overseas companies, as well as to merge into the international society. Information technology and English are two top priorities of education in Guangzhou.

Editor: Catherine