It was founded in 1924 by and named after Sun Yat-sen, a revolutionary and the founding father of the Republic of China. The school’s main campus commonly referred to as the South Campus, is located in Haizhu District, Guangzhou, inheriting the campus from the former Lingnan University. The university has five campuses in the three cities of Guangzhou, Zhuhai, and Shenzhen, and ten affiliated hospitals.