Guangdong was recorded as Baiyue in Spring and Autumn Annals and Nanyue in Shi Ji -- The Record of History. During the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC), most of today's Guangdong was within the jurisdiction of Nanhai Prefecture.
During the Tang Dynasty (618-907AD), Lingnan Dong Dao (Dao was of an administrative region in ancient China) covered Guangdong today. During the Song Dynasty (960-1279), most of today's Guangdong was within the jurisdiction of Guang Nan Dong Lu (Lu was of an administrative region in ancient China).
Guangdong was actually the short form of Guang Nan Dong Lu. In the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Guangdong was one of the thirteen administrative provinces under the imperial government. As a province, the territory of Guangdong was generally outlined then. In the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the name of Guangdong Province was formally introduced and has been in use ever since.

   Since the founding of the People's Republic, a number of changes have been made to the administrative divisions of Guangdong Province. The People's Government of Guangdong Province was officially established in November 6, 1949.
 The province was then divided into 9 sub-provincial administrative regions, namely Zhujiang, Dongjiang, Xijiang, Beijiang, Yuezhong, Nanlu, Xingmei, Chaoshan, Qiongya, and there were 7 cities and 98 counties under its jurisdiction. In 1983, the city-leading format of administrative system was introduced in some regions of the province.
In 1988, the Hainan Administrative Region was split from Guangdong Province according the decision of the Central Government and Hainan Province was formally established. In the same year, the administrative division of prefecture was revoked and 18 (finally 21) prefectural cities were established in the province.
Since then, the administrative hierarchy of prefectural city over county, and township over village was formally in place.