Pearl River Delta

The Pearl River Delta Metropolitan Region 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–Macao Greater Bay Area in official documents, the region is one of the most densely populated and urbanized regions in the world, and is considered a megacity by numerous scholars. It is currently the wealthiest region in Southern China and one of the wealthiest regions in China along with the Yangtze River Delta in Eastern China and Jingjinji in Northern China. Most of the region is part of the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone, which is a special economic zone of China.
The region is a megalopolis, and is at the southern end of a larger megalopolis running along the southern coast of China, which include metropolises such as Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Macao. The nine largest cities of the PRD had a combined population of 86 million in 2022; the PRD has become the largest urban area in the world in both size and population. The region's traditional language is Cantonese; in the late 20th century and the 21st century, due to the high inflow of migrant workers coming from other regions, Mandarin has gradually become a lingua franca.
The west side of this region, along with Chaoshan, was also the source of much Chinese emigration from the 19th to the mid 20th centuries, including to the Western world, where they formed many Chinatowns. Today, much of the Chinese diaspora in the US, Canada, Australia, Latin America, and much of Southeast Asia traces their ancestry to the west side of this region.

City	Area km²	Population	GDP	GDP
Shenzhen	1,986	17,560,000	CN¥ 3,680 billion	US$512.6 billion
Guangzhou	7,434	18,676,605	CN¥ 3,103 billion	US$432.2 billion
Hong Kong	1,114	7,413,070	HK$3,138 billion	US$401.8 billion
Foshan	3,848	9,498,863	CN¥ 1,336 billion	US$186.1 billion
Dongguan	2,465	10,466,625	CN¥ 1,228 billion	US$171.1 billion
Huizhou	10,922	6,042,852	CN¥ 614 billion	US$85.5 billion
Zhuhai	1,724	2,439,585	CN¥ 448 billion	US$62.4 billion
Zhongshan	1,784	4,418,060	CN¥ 414 billion	US$57.7 billion
Macau	115	672,800	MOP$430 billion	US$53.4 billion
Jiangmen	9,535	4,798,090	CN¥ 421 billion	US$58.2 billion
Zhaoqing	14,891	4,113,594	CN¥ 292 billion	US$40.7 billion
Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macau Greater Bay Area	55,818	86,100,000	CN¥ 14.816 trillion	US$2.062 trillion

Geology

Geography

The river delta, also known as the Golden Delta of Guangdong, is formed by three major rivers, the Xi Jiang, Bei Jiang, and Dong Jiang. The flat lands of the delta are criss-crossed by a network of tributaries and distributaries of the Pearl River. The Pearl River Delta is actually two alluvial deltas, separated by the core branch of the Pearl River. The Bei Jiang and Xi Jiang converge to flow into the South China Sea and Pearl River in the west, while the Dong Jiang only flows into the Pearl River proper in the east.
The Xi Jiang begins exhibiting delta-like characteristics as far west as Zhaoqing, although this city is not usually considered a part of the PRD region. After passing through the Lingyang Gorge and converging with the Bei Jiang, the Xi Jiang opens up and flows as far east as Nansha District and as far west as Xinhui. Major distributaries of the Xi include Donghui Shuidao, Jiya Shuidao, Hutiaomen Shuidao, Yinzhou Hu, and the main branch of the Xi Jiang. Jiangmen and Zhongshan are the major cities found in the western section of the delta.
The Bei Jiang enters the delta plains at Qingyuan but does not begin to split until near Sanshui. From here the two main distributaries are Tanzhou Shuidao and Shunde Shuidao which form multiple mouths along the west side of the Pearl River's estuary. Two other distributaries, and Xinan Cong, split from the Bei further north and converge with the Liuxi He to form the main branch of the Pearl River just north of Guangzhou. The other major city in the north section of the delta is Foshan.
The Dong Jiang flows through Huizhou into the delta. It begins diverging northeast of Dongguan into many distributaries, including the Dongguan Shuidao. Distributaries enter the Pearl River as far north as Luogang and as far south as Hu Men.
Saltwater crocodiles were present within the Pearl River estuary during antiquity.

Location and demographics

As well as the delta itself, the term Pearl River Delta refers to the dense network of cities that covers nine prefectures of the province of Guangdong, namely Dongguan, Foshan, Guangzhou, Huizhou, Jiangmen, Shenzhen, Zhaoqing, Zhongshan and Zhuhai and the SARs of Hong Kong and Macau. The 2010/2011 State of the World Cities report, published by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, estimates the population of the delta region at 120 million people; it is rapidly urbanising.
The eastern side of the PRD, dominated by foreign capital, is the most developed economically. The western areas, dominated by local private capital, are open for development. New transport links between Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai in the PRD are expected to open up new areas for development, further integrate the cities, and facilitate trade within the region. The Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge, and the Shenzhen–Zhongshan Bridge, are amongst the longest bridges in the world with a total length of approximately each.
Image:Canton Macau and Hong Kong MKL Bd. 9 1890.jpg|thumb|right|An 1890 map of the mouth of the Pearl River Delta, showing the locations of Macau and Hong Kong
Until 1985, the PRD had been mainly dominated by farms and small rural villages, but after the economy was reformed and opened, a flood of investment turned it into the land's economic powerhouse. The PRD's startling growth was fueled by foreign investment coming largely from Hong Kong manufacturers that moved their operations into the PRD. In 2003, Hong Kong companies employed 11 million workers in their PRD operations. Lately there have been extreme labour shortages in the region due to runaway economic growth which caused wages to rise by about 20 to 30 percent in the past two years.

Economy

The Pearl River Delta has been one of the most economically dynamic regions of the People's Republic of China since the launch of China's reform programme in 1979. With annual gross domestic product growth of 13.45 percent over three decades since 1978, it is 3.5 percentage points higher than the national average. Since 1978 almost 30 percent of all foreign investment in China was in the PRD. In 2007 its GDP rose to US$448 billion which makes its economy about the size of Taiwan's and by 2019 this figure has increased to US$2.0 trillion or about the same size as Canada. The abundance of employment opportunities created a pool of wealthy, middle-income, professional consumers with an annual per capita income that puts them among China's wealthiest. Since the onset of China's reform program, the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone has been the fastest growing portion of the fastest growing province in the fastest growing large economy in the world.
The industrial cities in the Pearl River Delta have been called the "Factory of the World" or the "World's Factory" due to the presence of industrial parks populated with factories from foreign investments. However, the target market of the delta region's exports has become increasingly domestic rather than foreign. Dongguan, Zhongshan, Nanhai, and Shunde are the four cities known as the Four Guangdong Dragons for their high growth rates and rapid development from late the 1980s to the 2000s.
Although the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone encompasses only 0.4 percent of the land area and only 3.2 percent of the 2000 census population of mainland China, it accounted for 8.7 percent of GDP, 35.8 percent of total trade, and 29.2 percent of utilised foreign capital in 2001. By 2016 the Pearl River Delta accounted for 9.1 percent of China's GDP. These figures show the remarkable level of economic development to which the Pearl River Delta has been subjected in order to become an 'Economic Zone', as well as the international orientation of the region's economy. This orientation has attracted numerous investors from all over the world who use the Greater Pearl River Delta region as a platform for serving global and Chinese markets.
As of 2008, the Central Government has introduced new labor laws, environmental and other regulations to reduce pollution, industrial disputes, produce safer working conditions and protect the environment. The costs of producing low margin and commodity goods have increased. This is on top of the rising cost for energy, food, transport and the appreciation of the renminbi against the falling US dollar. Some manufacturers will need to cut costs by moving up the value chain or moving to more undeveloped regions.

Significance of PRD

The Pearl River Delta established itself as the factory location of choice for global companies that were headquartered in Hong Kong in the 1980s. The industrial output of the Pearl River Delta was generated in the main by state-owned enterprises. Meanwhile, the industrial output of collective-owned enterprises diminished over time, with private enterprises and joint ventures increasing their share of the Pearl River Delta's industrial output to 37.5 percent by the mid-1990s.
Today urban areas with the assistance of the municipal governments in the Pearl River Delta are attempting to rebrand industrial output as originating from "the world's tech lab" or "design studio". The Pearl River Delta has become the world's workshop and is a major manufacturing base for products such as electronics, garments and textiles, plastic products, and a range of other goods.
Private-owned enterprises have developed quickly in the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone and are playing an increasing role in the region's economy, particularly after year 2000 when the development environment for private-owned enterprises has been greatly relaxed.
In 2001 nearly five percent of the world's goods were produced in the Greater Pearl River Delta, with a total export value of US$289 billion. Over 70,000 Hong Kong companies had factory plants in the Greater Pearl River Delta.