Dongguan

Dongguan (Chinese: 东莞) is a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong province, China.

An important industrial city located in the Pearl River Delta, Dongguan borders the provincial capital of Guangzhou to the north, Huizhou to the northeast, Shenzhen to the south, and the Pearl River to the west. It is part of the Pearl River Delta megacity with more than 44.78 million inhabitants at the 2010 census spread over nine municipalities (including Macao) across an area of 17,573 square kilometres (6,785 sq mi). Dongguan's city administration is considered especially progressive in seeking foreign direct investment. Dongguan ranks behind only Shenzhen, Shanghai and Suzhou in exports among Chinese cities, with $65.54 billion in shipments.

In addition to being an important manufacturing hub, the city has also earned a reputation as the "sex capital of China". It is also home to one of the world's largest, though largely empty, shopping malls, the New South China Mall.

History

Although the earliest traces of human habitation in the area stretch back 5,000 years, Dongguan's emergence as a true city is a recent phenomenon.