The Old Book of Tang describes Guangzhou as important port in the south of China.

Direct routes connect the Near East and China in this period: a Chinese prisoner, who had been captured in 751 in the Battle of Talas and had stayed in Iraq for twelve years, returns to China by ship on a direct route from Iraq to Guangzhou.

Sacked by Arab and Persian raiders during the turmoil of the An Shi Rebellion, tThe port will remain shut down for the next five decades while foreign vessels dock at Hanoi instead, yet Guangzhou will thrive again once it is reopened to foreign trade in the early ninth century.