Guzhen () is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

situated on the northwest periphery of the city of

Zhongshan Zhongshan (; ) is a prefecture-level city in the south of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province, China. As of the 2020 census, the whole city with 4,418,060 inhabitants is now part of the Guangzhou–Shenzhen conurbation with 65,565,622 i ...

Pearl River Delta The Pearl River Delta Metropolitan Region (PRD; ; pt, Delta do Rio das Pérolas (DRP)) is the low-lying area surrounding the Pearl River estuary, where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea. Referred to as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Mac ...

Guangdong Province Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

, some from the city center. The town is best known for manufacturing lighting. In recent years the town has grown into a place with thousands of small and big factories all related to lighting in one way or the other. Many international lighting companies have factories and showrooms in Guzhen town, which is about one and a half hours drive from

Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport is the major airport of Guangzhou, Guangdong province, in Southern China. Both airport codes were inherited from the former Baiyun Airport, and the IATA code is derived from Guangzhou's historical romani ...

. From Hong Kong, it takes two hours to reach the Zhongshan ferry terminal and another 30 minutes to Guzhen Town. The population of Guzhen Town is estimated at 75,000 permanent residents with a floating population of up to 30,000.

Administration

The area of Guzhen is divided into twenty administrative districts each with a resident committee.

Geography

The town of Guzhen is bordered by

Jiangmen Jiangmen (), alternately romanized in Cantonese as Kongmoon, is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong Province in southern China. As of the 2020 census, its three urban districts, plus Heshan City being conurbated, with 2,657,662 inhabitants ar ...

to the West, with the

Xi river The Xi River (; ) or Si-Kiang is the western tributary of the Pearl River in southern China. It is formed by the confluence of the Gui and Xun Rivers in Wuzhou, Guangxi. It originates from the eastern foot of the Maxiong Mountain in Qujing ...

serving as a boundary. The Xi river forms part of the

Pearl River The Pearl River, also known by its Chinese name Zhujiang or Zhu Jiang in Mandarin pinyin or Chu Kiang and formerly often known as the , is an extensive river system in southern China. The name "Pearl River" is also often used as a catch-all ...

Foshan Foshan (, ), alternately romanized as Fatshan, is a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong Province, China. The entire prefecture covers and had a population of 9,498,863 as of the 2020 census. The city is part of the western side of the ...

borders Guzhen to the north.

Economics

Lighting industry

Dubbed China Lighting Capital by the China Light Industry Council and China Association of Lighting Industry. Guzhen is the largest production base of lighting fittings in China and one of the four largest lighting fitting distributing centers in the world. In 2001, lighting fittings produced in Guzhen made up 60% of the Chinese market with exports reaching $1 billion. The production of lighting fittings is the primary industry in Guzhen, accounting for nearly 88% of the town's industrial output. The development of the lighting fittings industry in Guzhen can be traced back to the late 1970s, however, the first significant developments took place from the mid-1980s to early 1990s. Due to the rapid economic development of China, Guzhen's lighting fittings industry has undergone unprecedented growth in the past two decades. Guzhen's growth at the turn of the millennium was unprecedented, boasting a 50% increase in lighting enterprises from 1999 to 2001, with exports increasing from $40 million to $250 million. In the year 2013, total exports for lighting items from Guzhen Town exceeded $1 billion, as per unofficial sources. While Guzhen now primarily produces non-branded OEM goods for international companies, it has spawned some domestic players in the industry, such as: Huayi, Opple lighting, Senqiu, and BECO Lights.

References

*http://www.zsguzhen.gov.cn/bmfw/news.asp?id=17964 *http://www.gzlightingfair.com/en/Home/About_Us *https://web.archive.org/web/20131130012506/http://www.opple.com/about/company.jsp *https://web.archive.org/web/20131206010047/http://jm.gd.vnet.cn/

External links

Guzhen Town Government Official Website
{{Zhongshan Zhongshan Township-level divisions of Guangdong