Gāozhōu

The Gāozhōu are the Yue people of the inland valleys behind the south-western Guangdong coast, around present-day Gaozhou and Maoming, whose speech, together with that of Yangjiang, gives its name to the Gao-Yang branch of Yue; locals call it Gaozhou Cantonese, close to Guangzhou speech in much of its vocabulary but distinct in intonation and colloquial idiom.

Their country was the Gaoliang of the Northern and Southern dynasties, homeland of Lady Xian. Born in 512 to a chieftain of the indigenous Li, marrying the Chinese official Feng Bao in 535, she used diplomacy and loyal campaigns to hold Lingnan for the Chen and Sui courts, later worshipped as the Saintly Mother of Lingnan.

In 1280 the Yuan made Gaozhou a route, and in 1368 the Ming made it Gaozhou prefecture over Maoming and neighbouring counties; the Qing kept it as chief prefecture of the south-western Guangdong coast.