The development of south China

In the early first centuries ad, when the rest of China was busy carving out a civilization on the Yangtze River, south China was very much a rural backwater peopled by native tribes, the last survivors of which form the minority groups scattered throughout the region today.

Although Chinese administration in the region began with the Qin Dynasty (221–206bce), which established the first unified Chinese empire, it was not until the era of the Three Kingdoms in the late 3rd century ce that Guangdong earned its provincial status as part of China.