Panyu, alternately romanized as Punyu, is one of 11 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, China. It was a separate county-level city before its incorporation into modern Guangzhou in 2000. The present district covers an area of about . Geography Panyu lies at the heart of the Pearl River Delta, its boundary straddles from latitudes 22.26' to 23.05', and sprawls from longitudes 113.14' to 113.42'. Facing the Lion Sea in the east and the estuary of the Pearl River in the south, its eastern border is separated from Dongguan by a strip of water, and the western border of Panyu is adjacent to the cities of Nanhai, Shunde and Zhongshan, while it abuts the downtown of Guangzhou in the north. The site of the People's government of Panyu is Shiqiao which is from downtown Guangzhou and from the cities of Hong Kong and Macau, respectively. Shiqiao may have once been called "Stone Bridge town", but because of war, the characters changed, so Shiqiao was rewritten using the characters for "city" and "bridge". History The Chinese settlement at Panyu was established by the Qin armies under Zhao Tuo during their first failed invasion of the Baiyue in Guangdong in 214 BC. There are at least 11 separate theories on the etymology of the name. Upon the fall of the Qin, Zhao Tuo established Panyu as the capital of his kingdom of Nanyue in 204 BC. Archaeological evidence shows that it was a burgeoning commercial center: among the present material object remnants, there are those of Southeast Asian, Indian, and even African origin. Yuexiu District, most of Baiyun and Huangpu Districts, and parts of parts of Liwan, Haizhu, and Tianhe Districts were originally part of Panyu County but were ceded to Guangzhou as it expanded. On 20 May 1992, Panyu County was upgraded into a county-level city and, on 21 May 2000, Panyu was fully converted into a district of Guangzhou. By 28 April 2005, the southern part of Panyu was split off as the new Nansha District. On 30 September 2012, three southern towns of Panyu—Dongchong, Dagang, and Lanhe—were removed to Nansha's jurisdiction. Administrative divisions Panyu district administers ten subdistricts () and six towns (). The district executive, legislature and judiciary are based in the Shiqiao, together with the CPC and PSB branches. On 1 December 2012 three towns (Dongchong, Dagang, & Lanhe) were