越秀山体育场

Yuexiushan Stadium sits at 34 Yingyuan Road, Hongqiao Subdistrict, Yuexiu District, at the southern foot of Yuexiu Hill below the Zhenhai Tower. It is Guangzhou's first municipal public sports ground and is widely regarded as the spiritual home of Cantonese football. The site began as the 17,000-square-metre Guanyinshan football ground laid out in 1925, which hosted the first Guangzhou inter-school games in April 1926. On 18 March 1950 the then mayor Ye Jianying called on the city's youth to build a people's stadium with their own hands; the ground opened on 9 October 1950 and was formally completed in 1953. The stadium is cut into a valley: the north, west and south stands follow the natural slope at roughly 45 degrees to create a plunging view of the pitch, while the east side is closed by a seven-storey gate building erected in 1956 and rebuilt and extended in 2001, which houses the Guangzhou Football Association, the Yuexiushan Sports Centre offices and the press room, with dressing rooms at ground level. The pitch measures 105 by 68 metres, is planted with Lanyin No. 3 natural turf and irrigated by a water-saving system, and is ringed by a four-lane, 400-metre blue synthetic track. Seating is in graduated yellow, currently about 18,000 to 20,000 places against a historic peak of 33,000; the north and south stand roofs carry LED lighting, the west stand has an LED scoreboard, and a three-storey function building behind the north stand contains commentary positions and VIP boxes. The first leg of the inaugural Guangdong-Hong Kong Cup was played here in 1979, and football matches of the 6th and 9th National Games, the 2010 Asian Games and the 15th National Games have all been staged on this pitch. The stadium was renovated for the 15th National Games and reopened on 15 January 2025 for the Guangdong-Hong Kong Cup; in the same year it was listed among the tenth batch of China's 20th-century architectural heritage.