Good question, and a good place to begin.
22°32' 50"N 114°E
I live in a city named
Shenzhen [深圳 Shen-jen] in south China located on the north border of
Hong Kong. Shenzhen was originally just a small fishing town of around 300,000 and was made China's first "
Special Economic Zone" (SEZ) in 1979, which in very general terms, made Shenzhen a very friendly area for business. The SEZ along with the proximity to Hong Kong has caused migrants from across China and businesses from around to world to converge on Shenzhen. Currently the population is around 10.5 million and is one of the fastest growing cities in the world. Shenzhen is part of
Guangdong [广东 Gwong-dong] Province, which itself is the most populated Province in China at around 110 million. Guangdong and it's capital Guangzhou [广州 Gwong-joe] have historically been referred to as "Canton" and a majority of the local population speak
Cantonese, a separate language from what is generally considered
"Chinese" (aka Mandarin, Standard Chinese) spoken by a majority of the country. Conversely, a result of the SEZ status bringing migrants from all areas of China to Shenzhen, most of the population within Shenzhen speaks Mandarin.
This map overlays China with the United States and preserves the latitude (North/South) to give you a general sense of size and distance. Chinese cities are in red, American in blue, and cities I will be referencing are in green. Shenzhen is at the very south, and you can easily see that it shares a latitude with Havana, Cuba. D's hometown is Shangqiu in Henan Province, and we will be making regular trips to visit her family. The distance as well as change in climate will be similar to if I were living in Miami, FL and travel to Ohio to see family.
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