"Baietan" can mean a stretch of the Pearl River, the riverfront by Shamian and Huangsha, or a 36 km² planning area. This page sets the published boundaries, area figures and successive district frameworks side by side, and explains why sources refer to four districts, eight functional clusters, a 1+10 structure or twelve industry clusters.
The same name covers very different extents in geography, landscape and planning. Confusing the three is the usual source of disagreement about how large Baietan is.
South of old Xiguan the Pearl River splits into its front and rear channels; Baietan is the broad, deep water at the fork. Qu Dajun's Guangdong Xinyu records "two li up the Pearl River lies Baietan, wide and deep". The "pool" is a deep channel where visiting merchant ships anchored from the Song dynasty onward. A water name, with no administrative boundary.
The riverfront by Shamian Island, the White Swan Hotel and Huangsha pier is also called Baietan. "Moon over the Goose Pool" was named one of the Eight Sights of Guangzhou in 1963, and newer landmarks such as the Baietan Greater Bay Area Art Center and MixC line this stretch. A stretch of riverfront: wider than the water name, narrower than the planning area.
The Baietan Area Development Plan (2020–2035), issued in 2021, uses the name for a 36 km² planning area covering much of southern Liwan: Datansha, Shiweitang, Huadiwan, Guanggang, Guangchuan and Dongsha. In reporting, "Baietan business district" refers to this third sense.
These figures come from the Baietan Area Development Plan (2020–2035) issued in 2021, July 2020 planning-committee reporting and committee interviews; they are the most widely quoted set in public sources.
Total planning area
Baietan Area Development Plan 2020–2035Land area within it
Same sourceWater area within it
People's Daily / Guangzhou Daily, Jul 2020Pearl River frontage (committee interview)
Baietan committee interview / Nanfang Daily, 2023Documents describe the boundary slightly differently, and the core is a much smaller area than the plan as a whole. Each version is listed separately under its source.
North to Datansha, south to the Sanzhi Xiang waterway, east to the Pearl River's Sanzhi Xiang fork, west to the eastern edge of Hailong Science Park. The plan runs 2020–2035, with a near term of 2025 and a long term of 2035.
North to Datansha, west to the Liwan boundary and Huadi River, east to the Pearl River, south to the Sanzhi Xiang waterway — also 36 km², including 6 km² of water. This wording appears in 2020 planning reports and a 2023 committee interview.
In the 1+10 structure the core covers 238.4 hectares: facing Shamian and the White Swan Hotel to the north, bounded by Saiba Creek to the west and Hualei Road to the east, with over six million m² of planned floorspace. It is only the first small part of the plan, not the whole of Baietan.
From spatial structure to industry layout and on to implementation, public documents have used several ways of dividing the area. In date order, the changing numbers make sense.
Why the numbers differ：The lists serve different purposes: spatial structure (1+11, 1+10), industry layout (twelve clusters), and implementation or investment promotion (four districts, eight clusters). They come from different years and documents, and are not several names for one fixed boundary.
Areas merge or split: "Dongsha" in the four-district list becomes two separate clusters in the eight-cluster list.
Frontage figures differ too: the plan also refers to 10 km of waterfront along both banks; 11 km is prime river frontage, 15 km the planned greenway and 19 km the frontage of Area One — each measures something else.
The "Baietan core area" also has two scales: 238.4 ha (about 2.38 sq km) in the 1+10 spatial structure, versus the 12.5 sq km core district in the four-district list. The eight-cluster list follows the latter; the two figures are not one boundary.
Four districts and eight functional clusters are the two lists most often seen in recent reporting.
Headquarters, finance, exhibitions, culture, tourism and digital technology; home to the Greater Bay Area Art Center and MixC.
A health-industry island led by the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health.
A riverside headquarters district building on headquarters economy, tea trade, e-commerce, software, technology services and traditional Chinese medicine.
A southern gateway skyline for business, tourism, exhibitions, pharmaceutical trade and tech services.
Some documents say "Baietan port core"; the same core as in the four-district list.
The Shiweitang area; some PDF transcriptions read "Saibakou" differently.
The area containing Taikoo Li Julongwan.
The same Datansha listed at 3.55 km² in the four-district version.
Also in the 2020 1+10 cluster list; some PDF transcriptions garble the name.
Around the former Guangchuan shipyard; also in the 1+10 list.
One of the two entries into which "Dongsha" is split in the eight-cluster list.
The other Dongsha entry; together the two correspond to Dongsha in the four-district list.
Compiled from public sources. Every figure follows the wording of the document cited; this page is an index, not an interpretation of planning policy.