Panyu District, Guangzhou, China!

Have just been told something most intriguing and exciting, and exactly the sort of thing to get me all stirred-up and wanting-to-tear-in-and-solve-it:

Ancient records from 211BC show that the area of Guangzhou that is known now as the Panyu District was then called Poon-Yu City and was described as "a city that traded with the rest of the world".

So we're talking about right around here, perhaps that very spot there ...

... in fact anywhere from there down to that sport there on the river bend ...

... a person could maybe find the remains of an ancient city that was visited by Persians and Romans and Phoenicians and ... who knows who else!

Remember we have a still outstanding mystery going here. Remember this strange bearded fellow in the Museum at Macau?

Celts!

I've shown you him before; a statue carved round about 300BC in memory of a bunch of sea-faring men who called themselves "Celts" and who were in the South China region.

Remember me saying that this intriguing little piece of pre-history didn't make any sense in light of existing knowledge of this region ... but suddenly, yes, something that makes you go "Ahhh! Poon-Yu! An existing international trading centre! There is finally the possibility of some logic behind these Celts being here!"

Too intriguing and exciting? An entire unexplored area of The Past! All right there and no one looking! Oh, what I wouldn't give to be a Chinese-speaking archeologist instead of just a sad mono-lingual History Teacher! I would so be in there right at this moment requesting a grant to find out more; maybe to hire an imaging device for that entire river bank, just for starters.

OK, next time I go to Guangzhou, I want to stroll down that side of the Pearl River, kicking over stones and rocks and bits of mud, hoping that ... well, you know what I'm hoping for ... and I think I should stop talking about this now if I want this mystery to remain all mine, at least for the time being.