ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an extensive empirical and historical overview of Guangzhou, focussing on the spatial conditions that facilitated the arrival (and continued presence) of foreigners in the city. It critically reviews the background of the African population through drawing on available statistics and debates in existing literature. I place an emphasis on describing how Africans connect with China’s internal (transprovincial) migrants (and other populations) at the local level. Also, I problematise extant conceptualisations about the sociospatial formations that have emerged around the ‘foreign’ areas of the city.
