Today Dongguan is a major manufacturing hub, although it suffered significant loss of economic activity from the impact of the2007–2008 financial crisis.[9][10] The largest industrial sector is manufacturing of electronics and communications equipment; international companies with facilities in Dongguan includeDuPont,Samsung Electronics,Nokia,Coca-Cola,Nestlé andMaersk.[11]
TheDongguan Science and Technology Museum opened in December 2005 and is the high tech commerce park in the Songshan Lake district, which opened in 2003. The museum is a partnership with the Global IT Academy of theBrea Olinda Unified School District inSouthern California, demonstrating the city's emphasis on attracting technology business. The city announced in 2005 a planned investment of US$500 million over five years for technology infrastructure improvements. The city administration is considered especially progressive in seekingforeign direct investment.[12][13] Among the investors were Brazilian shoe manufacturers. Brazil excelled in manufacturing cheap footwear in the 1970s and 80s. The Brazilian community in Dongguan numbered 4,000 people in 2013.[14][15]
While the city is the fourth largest export region in China, behindShanghai,Shenzhen, andSuzhou, Dongguan has yet to gain the kind of name recognition realized by Shenzhen outside of China. This may be because the city has focused on infrastructure investment rather than the direct targeting of major corporations with financial incentives for economic development. Nevertheless, Dongguan has been identified by high level representatives of theNational Development and Reform Commission of the central government as one of the most significant growth regions for technology in the coming years. As part of this plan, the Dongguan local government announced a plan to create and support a 100-billion-yuan photovoltaic manufacturing industry by 2015.[16]
To cope with the impact of the financial crisis, Dongguan city is looking to industrial restructuring, focusing onfour pillar platforms, these are governmental services, supporting measures, technology upgrade, and market expansion. The city government claims that this process has already enhanced its capability for independent innovation and the quantity of patent applications in 2008.[17][18]
Dongguan was known as China's “Sin City”, where prostitution once thrived. But authorities have attempted to eradicate prostitution in the city.[19]
On 9 February 2014China Central Television aired a special on the sex industry in Dongguan. The same day Guangdong Provincial Police raided and closed all saunas, bars, foot massages, karaokes, and other businesses associated with the sex industry. The economic impact of this crackdown is believed to be 50 billion yuan, or just over $8 billion US dollars. The residual effects of the crackdown affected the livelihood of taxi drivers and restaurants who, while not directly involved in the sex industry, benefited from the increased clientele.[20][21]
The city ranked 13th in Forbes China's listing of the most innovative mainland cities, as well as 18th inForeign Policy's listing of the most dynamic cities in the world.[22]
The earliest traces of human habitation in the area stretch back 5,000 years. In 1839, at the outset of theFirst Opium War, large quantities ofseized opium were destroyed inHumen, a town that now belongs to Dongguan. Several of the major battles of the war were fought in this area.[citation needed]
Being a district of the Huiyang prefecture before, as its economy overshadowed the prefectural capital ofHuizhou itself, Dongguan earned city status in 1985, and was upgraded to prefecture city status three years later.[24] During this period the city changed its focus from an agricultural town into a manufacturing hub, with an average annual growth of up to 18 percent.[25]
Geographically, the city is mostly hilly to the east and flat in the west,[26] with 115.98 kilometers (72.07 mi) of shoreline. The urban center of Dongguan is 50 kilometers (31 mi) from that ofGuangzhou to its north, 90 kilometers (56 mi) fromShenzhen to its south, 47 nautical miles (87 km) fromHong Kong and 48 nautical miles (89 km) fromMacau by waterway. It is positioned in the middle of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen economic corridor, a hub for both land and sea transport.
Of Dongguan's total area, 27 percent is water, 25 percent forest land, and 13 percent arable land, while 35 percent of its land area has been fully developed.[citation needed]
Guan Yin Shan (Kuan Yin Mountain) in DongguanSkyscrapers in Dongguan
Dongguan has a dry-winterhumid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification:Cwa), with abundant rainfall over the year. It lies just south of theTropic of Cancer. The average temperature is 22.9 °C (73.2 °F) throughout the year with average rainfall of 1,893 millimeters (74.5 in).[27] With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 23 percent in March to 57 percent in October, the city receives 1892 hours of bright sunshine annually.
Climate data for Dongguan, elevation 56 m (184 ft), (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1951–present)
Dongguan had an estimated 6,949,800 inhabitants at the end of 2008, among whom 1,748,700 were local residents and 5,201,100 permanent migrants from other parts of the country.[32] At the 2010 Census the population had expanded to 8,220,237.[33] The number reached 10.5 million by 2020.[1]
Dongguan is the hometown for manyoverseas Chinese, the family origin of over 700,000 people in Hong Kong,Taiwan and Macau and over 200,000 Chinese nationals living abroad.
Dongguan is aprefecture-level city of theGuangdongprovince. An uncommon administrative feature is that it has nocounty-level division, but the municipal government does group the 32 township-level divisions into six district areas. The city government directly administers fourSubdistricts and 28towns:
Many foreign travellers to Dongguan fly into Hong Kong, which givesvisas on arrival to citizens of over 170 countries. After landing, visitors must apply for a visa to entermainland China.[citation needed] One can travel from Hong Kong to Dongguan bybus, ferry, ortrain. Passengers travelling overland must disembark from their transport at the Hong Kong/China border to go through customs and immigration, except for those traveling on theMass Transit Railway intercity services (formerKowloon–Canton Railway) fromHung Hom station to Dongguan, Guangzhou and beyond.
People can also choose to drive between Hong Kong and Dongguan. With the permitted business license plate and driver license, people can drive through the customs located at Shenzhen so that to get to Hong Kong. Normally, it takes three hours for driving. In 2018,G4 Expressway (Beijing - Hong Kong and Macau Expressway) was opened, and Dongguan is one of the cities that G4 Expressway approaches. This benefits people from Dongguan to travel to those cities on G4 Expressway.
TheHumen Pearl River Bridge is a suspension bridge over thePearl River. Completed in 1997, it has a main span of 888 meters (2,913 ft). Construction work on the Second Humen Pearl River Bridge will start in early 2014.
Among the four metro lines (Line 1-Line 4) planned for theDongguan Rail Transit,Line 2 was scheduled to open for operations in early 2015. This was delayed and opened in May 2016. Line 2 will link towns in Western Dongguan, thereby promoting the connection of the entire downtown area with Houjie, Humen and Chang'an. It will also support Dongguan's regional transportation with other cities such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong by joining with the rail transit junctions of the Pearl River Delta.[39]
Dongguan is dubbed as a "National Basketball City" and is the only prefecture-level city with three professional basketball clubs in China. Established in 1993, theGuangdong Southern Tigers are the first professional basketball club in China, and won elevenChinese Basketball Association (CBA) championships.
Dongguan Yulan Theater is one of China's newest multipurpose performing arts venues. With its multi-layered exterior suggestive of an unfolding lotus petal, it has become a landmark in Dongguan city. The new cultural hub houses two theaters presenting a full schedule of performances, includingRomeo and Juliet and the Chinese classicButterfly Lovers. So far Dongguan has produced seven original musicals by its own and made a roadshow of 60 performances in over 30 cities of China.[43][citation needed]
The city and province have been the recent focus of press and journalist attention with coverage of the many young Chinese workers, principally females (so-calledfactory girls), from agricultural areas who work in the area's factories and manufacturing/assembly facilities, where many are housed in large dormitories, usually several to a room.[44]
An article in theHigh Tech Misery in China series reports research conducted, over 2008 to 2009, on working conditions at one of the city's major keyboard makers (Dongguan Meitai Plastics & Electronics Factory); in it, Meitai factory won some unwanted attention due to the poor conditions for its young, mostly female workers. The article[45] includes details of those conditions, photos, translations of employer's rules and evidence that well-known computer brands use this keyboard supplier's products.
Also, Dongguan has built a notoriety within China for its various types of brothels, massage parlors, nightclubs, sauna centers and karaoke bars. The city had more than 120 top-end luxury hotels and hundreds of other mid-range places that offer illegal sexual services or lease floors to sex operators, and many parts of the broader service sector benefit from the trade brought by visitors.[46] Although much of the business is illegal, police operations to limit these activities were for a long time largely ineffective, in part because corrupt members of the local administration and other officials have business interests in the sector.[47][48] On 9February 2014, CCTV aired a report about prostitution in Dongguan. In reaction, on the same day, Dongguan police launched a crackdown on brothels, massage parlors, nightclubs, sauna centres and karaoke bars, leading to some commentary that the city's days as China's sex capital were numbered.[49][50]
The city is home to 650 educational institutions: one general college, a TV University as well as technical and vocational schools, 550 primary schools and 480 kindergartens. Also, Dongguan is home to a wide range of international schools due to the large expat community.
The number of professional teachers, including those at kindergartens, totals 20,268. A comparatively integrated educational system has been set up including preschool, basic, vocational, higher and lifelong adult education. Senior high school education has developed since 1995.
^Peter Herrle; Josefine Fokdal; Detlev Ipsen, eds. (2014).Beyond Urbanism: Urban(izing) Villages and the Mega-urban Landscape in the Pearl River Delta in China. Lit. p. 36.ISBN9783643905529.
^Census Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China; Population and Employment Statistics Division of the National Bureau of Statistics of the People's Republic of China (2012).中国2010年人口普查分乡、镇、街道资料 (1 ed.). Beijing:China Statistics Print.ISBN978-7-5037-6660-2.
^Ministry of Civil Affairs (August 2014).《中国民政统计年鉴2014》 (in Simplified Chinese). China Statistics Press.ISBN978-7-5037-7130-9.
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