City Guide

• General Info
• Public Holidays
• Transportation
• Airport Info
• Main Attractions

   The name Dongguan translates to "East Grass",  "Dong", because the area is east of Guangzhou and the Pearl River,  and "Guan", after the "guanaco" grass that grew in the area.

   Dongguan is located about half way between Hong Kong and Guangzhou, 23 North Latitude, 114 East Longitude if you are going by lat/lon or  about 30km south of  Guangzhou on the Guang-Shen expressway if you are going by highway.

   Dongguan is a city of prefecture level, and has a collection of other smaller cities within, so you may hear of areas of Dongguan like Humen, Changping, Dalan, Dalinshan, etc mentioned as being in Dongguan. In addition, there are districts of Dongguan that correlate to the old villages that existed in the past.  So within Dongguan you have Dong Cheng, Fu Cheng, Dao Jiao, etc.

   Being an industrial manufacturing base for such industries as footwear, furniture, computer parts and all sorts of other items, most of the population is transient migrant workers, so getting a handle on the population count is not particularly easy. Average figures are about 1.8 million permanent residents, and another 6 to 7 million migrants workers working in the area#s factories and offices

Historically Dongguan dates back to the the Zhide Reign of Tang Dynasty (757). Some say China#s history starts in this area. Humen, a southern city in Dongguan, the opium wars took place, and during World War II against Japan, Dongguan was a base of the resistance forces in the East River Basin area.

Dongguan is a city of contrasts, with modern glass and concrete buildings near small older villages, luxury European cars vying for street (and sometimes sidewalk space) with bicycles, large mansions down the street from factory dormitories, farms next to factories.

Life in Dongguan for the expat can either be interesting and active, or quiet and lonely, it#s up to the individual. One thing for sure it#s a challenge.
 

   Dongguan is one of the key junctions in the traffic network of the Pearl River Delta, located 50 km to the southeast of Guangzhou, 90 km to the northwest of Shenzhen, and 100 km from Hong Kong. Its location in the middle of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen economic corridor has given it the regional advantage of fast and convenient transportation favorable for the development of supply chains. The city has built up a developed multidimensional traffic network consisting of highways, railways, waterways and airways. 
 
Highways:

   The present length of highways in Dongguan totals 2,640 km, with a density of 1.07 km/km2, ranking the first in China. The Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Zhuhai Expressway, the Dongguan-Shenzhen Expressway, the Coastal Expressway, National Freeway 107 and the Dongguan-Huizhou Highway are major highways past Dongguan. The completion and opening of the Humen Bridge in 1997 shortened land traffic from Hong Kong and Shenzhen to Zhuhai and Zhongshan by 120 km, which created the pivotal position of Dongguan in the traffic network between Guangzhou and Hong Kong across the Pearl River.

Railways:

   The Guangzhou-Kowloon Railway, Guangzhou-Shenzhen Quasi-high-speed Train Service, the Guangzhou-Meizhou-Shantou Railway and the Beijing-Kowloon Railway interchange in Dongguan. The railway customs in Dongguan Railway Station is a Class A Customs in China responsible for entry-exit inspection and quarantine of the through trains from Beijing and Shanghai to Kowloon. This has created great convenience for travelers between Hong Kong and such places as Beijing, Shanghai and its neighboring cities in Eastern China. Dongguan has thus become one of the centers for railway transportation in the south of China.

Ports:

   The Humen Port in Dongguan is a Class A port in China opened to foreign ships. Passenger and cargo ferries between the port and Hong Kong are available on a daily basis. At present, the Humen Port has built 11 berths of between 2,000 and 35,000 tonnage with a total designed handling capacity of 26.92 million tons, 546,000 TEU containers and 700,000 passenger-times. The Huangpu Port and Xinsha Port in Guangzhou and the Yantian Port and Shekou Container Terminals in Zhenzhen are all within less than two hours drive from Dongguan, while Hong Kong Container Terminals are only about two hours drive away.

Airports:

  The Guangzhou-Zhuhai Expressway connects Dongguan northward to the Baiyun Airport in Guangzhou and southward to the Shenzhen Airport, both within a distance of 50 km. A little further distance of about 100 km lies between Dongguan and the Zhuhai Airport, the Foshan Airport and the New Airport of Hong Kong. Branch offices and more than forty agencies of various airways scatter in the city to greatly facilitate the air traffic service for both passengers and freight.
 

Dongguan is a famous city in South China with a history of 5000 years. Dongguan has many places of interest. More than 150 years ago, the Incineration of Opium during the Opium War took place in Human, a town of Dongguan, which symbolized the beginning of China#s modern history. The Humen Opium War battlefield relic is the most complete ancient battlefield in the world. The historic relics like Humen Opium Burning Pond, Shajiao and Weiyuan Fort Sites are well known to the world. Besides, Dongguan has many ancient cultural sites dating back to the Ming and Qing dynasties, such as the Keyuan Garden, one of the four most famous gardens in Guangdong Province, Jin#aozhou Pagoda and Yuan Chonghuan#s former home of Ming dynasty, Huangqi Ancient Temple in Song Dynasty. You can also be fascinated by charming sceneries in Dongguan, such as the seascape, fields of crops and banana trees, hills of ripe lichee trees, rivers with floating lotus etc.