Zhongshan City, the hometown of Dr Sun Yat-sen, is situated in the down south of the Pear River Delta, with Shunde, Foshan and Guangzhou in the north, Hong Kong and Shenzhen in the east, Zhuhai and Macao in the south below.

Covering an area of 1 679 sq km, Zhongshan is endowed with a favorable geographic location and weather conditions. With a population of 2.3635 million and a history of 800 years, Zhongshan is a place of talents, a birthplace of many historic celebrities in China and the hometown of thousands of overseas Chinese.

It was first called Xiangshan County in the Southern Song Dynasty and then changed to Zhongshan County in 1925 in memory of Dr Sun Yat-sen. It was set up as a city in 1983 and then a prefectural city in 1988.

Most of the land is alluvial plain and smoothly stretching out with a few rolling hills in the south middle. With subtropical marine weather, Zhongshan is ideal for agriculture. The main farm products are rice, sugarcane, peanut, lotus root, orange, litchi, longan, mushroom, silkworm cocoon, dish dove, shelducks and pond fish.

Zhongshan is well known for its two fish dishes made of river tench (cuipi tench) and perch.

Editor: Catherine