The bay area city of Zhaoqing was once home to the Italian Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci, who drew the first modern Chinese map of the world

• The city traces its history back to at least the 7th century, when it was an important military centre known as Gaoyao under the Southern Sui dynasty
• Ricci worked in Zhaoqing for six years, during which he and a fellow Jesuit compiled the very first dictionary between Chinese and a Western language, in this case Portuguese