An important industrial city 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 built-up or metro area with more than Dongguan's city administration is considered especially progressive in seeking foreign direct investment. It is also home to one of the world's largest shopping malls, the New South China Mall , [5] which is seeing increased activity.
Although the earliest traces of human habitation in the area stretch back 5, years, Dongguan's emergence as a true city is a recent phenomenon. In , at the outset of the First Opium War , large quantities of seized opium were destroyed in Humen , a town that now belongs to Dongguan. Several of the major battles of the war were fought in this area. During the Second World War , the city served as the base for guerrilla resistance against the Japanese occupation.
Being a district of the Huiyang prefecture before, as its economy overshadowed the prefectural capital of Huizhou itself, Dongguan earned city status in , and was upgraded to prefecture city status three years later.
The city ranked 13th in Forbes China's listing of the most innovative mainland cities, as well as 18th in Foreign Policy ' s listing of the most dynamic cities in the world.
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Geographically, the city is mostly hilly to the east and flat in the west, with The urban centre of Dongguan is 50 kilometres 31 mi from that of Guangzhou to its north, 90 kilometres 56 mi from Shenzhen to its south, 47 nautical miles 87 km from Hong Kong and 48 nautical miles 89 km from Macau by waterway.
