A deputy of the Guangzhou People's Congress has suggested retaking Guangzhou's former official English name of Canton to help build an international metropolis, Yangcheng Evening News reported.

Lei Jianwei, the deputy, said Canton was known as the city's English name around the world for more than 200 years before the name Guangzhou was used.

The Guangdong dialect is also known as Cantonese, and is spoken by more than 110 million people around the world.

Cantonese comes from the name Canton, and resuming the English name would further raise the Guangdong provincial capital city's international reputation, Lei said at a panel discussion during the city's on-going annual session of the Peoples' Congress on Thursday.

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