Baietan is not a pond. It is a broad reach of the Pearl River where the western channel splits into the front and back channels. Scoured along the Guangcong fault into a deep trough, it still measured 12.6 m deep in the early 1900s, against 3–6 m elsewhere in Guangzhou. Deep, wide water made it a port, then a marketplace, then an industrial waterfront — and now a public riverfront again.
The Datong Temple and its Smoke-and-Rain Well formed "Datong Misty Rain", one of the Song-era Eight Sights of Guangzhou. The nearby Datong port was a key inner harbour where foreign and Chinese cargo was transhipped; the town became one of Guangzhou's eight great towns. The well was rediscovered during construction in 2004 and restored.
The Guangzhou Gazetteer dates the name to the Ming dynasty. Qu Dajun wrote in Guangdong Xinyu: "Two li upstream on the Pearl River lies Baietan, wide and deep" — and in the same passage recorded the legend of the rebel Huang Xiaoyang, guided by white geese. The story of geese carrying him across the river is folklore.
When Guangzhou was designated China's sole port for Western trade, the Thirteen Hongs on the north bank became the country's only window to European and American markets. Foreign vessels anchored in Baietan, directly opposite.
Embankments turned the Shicuizhou sandbar into Shamian Island, a foreign settlement, fixing the northern shoreline. A long embankment on the Fancun side followed in the early 1900s, and the White Swan Hotel fixed the final line in the 1980s.
Overseas Chinese merchant Tan Liting bought the former Qing naval dock and built Guangdong's largest civilian shipyard, breaking the foreign monopoly. It became one of the predecessors of Guangzhou Shipyard.
Chen Bating and partners founded the Xietonghe rice mill at Dayongkou. In 1912 it was enlarged and renamed the Xietonghe Machine Works; in 1915 the works built China's first diesel engine, and the surviving main workshop dates from 1922. Its products sold across South China and Southeast Asia, earning it the name "the foremost machine works in the south".
Xietonghe became the Guangzhou Diesel Engine Factory, joined along the river by Guangzhou Shipyard and Guangzhou Steel. The area became a major industrial base; in 1963, "Moon over the Goose Pool" was named one of the Eight Sights.
Mainland China's first Sino-foreign joint-venture five-star hotel opened beside Shamian, funded by Henry Fok. Its "Home Water" atrium became an icon. Thousands of locals filed in on opening day; Queen Elizabeth II and many other heads of state later stayed. Wholesale markets such as Huangsha seafood and Fancun tea followed.
For the city's 2,210th anniversary in 1996, the Spring Festival fireworks moved to Baietan and ran every year to 2012 (from 2013 they were replaced by the Canton Tower light show; a few reports differ). They came back in 2024 after a twelve-year pause.
The "Baietan Economic Circle" entered the Liwan government work report in 2007 (some sources say 2006); Xinlongsha clearance began in 2010; the first statutory plan of 2011 called it Guangzhou's second CBD, and a revised plan followed in 2013; the management committee formed in 2012; Guangzhou Steel closed in 2013; and the 2020–2035 Baietan Plan was approved in 2021.
On 28 April the Baietan Greater Bay Area Art Center opened, housing the Guangdong Museum of Art, the Guangdong Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum and the Guangdong Literature Museum, facing the White Swan across the water. Baietan had been named one of five world-class landmark business districts in July 2023.
Sam's Club Liwan, the first phase of Taikoo Li Julongwan and the Metro Line 22 extension all arrived in December 2025. Taikoo Li Phase I formally opened on 28 September 2026; on 30 September Guangzhou's first MixC opened, with nearly 500 brands at that mall alone.
Water from the Xi, Bei and Liuxi rivers converges here and splits into two channels around Haizhu. The deep, broad reach acts as a flood buffer and keeps the channel navigable in dry seasons — the physical reason it served as a port for two millennia.
After the Ming-era rebel Huang Xiaoyang was defeated at the riverbank, two white clouds are said to have turned into swans and carried him away. This is folklore, and Guangdong Xinyu records a version of it alongside its geographic description.
"The broad waters of Baietan join the sky; ten thousand sights look back into the city." Qing-era bamboo-branch verse captured the terraces and moonlight. Datong Misty Rain, Liwan Fishing Song and Moon over the Goose Pool were all named among the Eight Sights.