Zhongshan City in Guangdong Province occupies a central position on the western side of the Pearl River Delta, the important waterway that connects Guangzhou with Hong Kong and Macau. At present, there are 24 townships controlled by the Zhongshan Government which in turn falls under the jurisdiction of Guangdong Province. Covering an area of 1,800 square kilometers (about 695 square miles), this is the hometown for 1,409,000 permanent residents and more than 800,000 overseas Chinese.
Economy
Primary industries
Primary productions are agricultural, such as rice, lychee, banana, and sugar cane. Added to this, horticulture in Xiaolan Town is famous throughout southern China for its blooming chrysanthemum.
Manufacturing industries
Zhongshan, together with Dongguan, Nanhai and Shunde, are dubbed as Four Little Tigers in Guangdong. The proximity of Zhongshan to Hong Kong and Macau is an advantage to its economic development, especially on the manufacturing industries.
In the 1980s, Zhongshan had a relatively developed State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) sector that was used to stimulate Township and Village Enterprises (TVE) development in the countryside. Currently, the SOE sector is much weaker and the economy is dominated by foreign investment and TVEs, and also by various specialized manufacturing towns. Each of these towns is specialized in making a particular product. Most of the towns are so successful that they earn a reputation as a leading manufacturer in their own pillar industries. Indeed, "One Industry in One Town" has become a unique economic feature in Zhongshan.
Pillar industries in various specialized manufacturing towns in Zhongshan include:
- Guzhen Town for lighting fitting products,
- Dachong Town for mahogany furniture industry,
- Dongfeng Town for electric household appliance industry,
- Huangpu Town for food industry,
- Shaxi Town for casual wear manufacturing,
- Xiaolan Town for locks and hardware industry, as well as for electronic acoustics products
The government of Zhongshan encourages "Research and Design" in the region by setting up national level research centre and specialized industrial regions. For example, the Zhongshan National Torch High-Tech Industrial Development Zone was established in 1990 in the east of the city by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the governments of Guangdong province and Zhongshan. Zhongshan Port, which ranks among the top 10 ports nationwide in terms of container-handling capacity, is in the zone. Since 2001, it has contained Zhongshan Electronic Base of China for its reputation on the electronic acousticsindustries. Following the possible development in Nansha, the city considers its eastern part, of which 400 km² of land is available, as a focus of development.
Currently, the city is trying to re-organize the fragmented industrialization. Meanwhile, the light and labour intensive industry characteristic of Zhongshan's economy imposes problem on shortage of land in Zhongshan.
