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Zhujiang River Delta Keeps in Step with World Economy
The Zhujiang River Delta, in the central-southern part of Guangdong Province, is like an open window to both the winds blowing in from across the ocean, and the terrestrial monsoons that gust in from inland areas.
Its fertile soil has nourished a civilization dating back thousands of years. After China's reform and opening up, the Delta area was the first to experience the waves of Western economy as they rolled in from the Pacific Ocean, and has, over the last two decades, been immersed in this competitive international economy. A series of high-speed economic miracles has been created in the area, through the country's support and wise use of preferential policies.
The Delta area is composed of Shenzhen and Zhuhai Special Economic zones, the provincial capital of Guangzhou, the four provincial "lesser tigers" of Dongguan, Zhongshan, Shunde and Nanhai, and parts of Jiangmen, Foshan, Huizhou and Zhaoqing. The area, at 42, 000 square kilometers, covering 23 percent of the provincial territory, and home to 25 million people, creates 70 percent of the entire provincial output value.
In the past, inhabitants of the Delta area lived on agriculture, being blessed with numerous rivers and ponds, and fertile land grown with lush fruit trees and crops. Today, the area comprises a cluster of booming industrial cities, dotted by development zones that are skillfully connected by crisscrossing roads. Bustling docks, container trucks shuttling back and forth, business people at work, and groups of migrant workers going to and from work are a common sight here.
Sandwiched between the nine central cities of the area are "specialized towns, " such as the lamp and lantern town of Gulong, the garment town of Humen, and the furniture town of Houjie, the streets of which are lined with shops. It is said that the shops renew their commodity showcases several times a day. It took me a full hour to drive along some of these commercial streets. Although the shops in each area deal in goods of the same category, their displays are entirely individual. It is only, however, on arriving in the city center that one truly witnesses the full extent of economic development in the Delta area, and becomes aware of its pulsing vitality within the world economy.
Sources: China Daily
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