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Located in the mid-south of Guangdong province and east of the Pearl River estuary, Dongguan borders Guangzhou on the north and Shenzhen on the south. A former county, Dongguan became a city in September 1985 and was then upgraded to prefecture city status in January 1988. Today, it administers 32 towns, 546 villager's committees and 132 neighborhood committees.
With a land area of 2465 square kilometers, the city has a population of 1,538,900 registered permanent residents and over 6,400,000 inhabitants. It is also the native place of over 700.000 compatriots from Hong Kong. Macao and Taiwan as well as more than 200,000 overseas Chinese.
Dongguan is an ancient city with a long history which can be traced back to more than 5000 years ago. It was in Humen, a town of Dongguan, that the event of Incineration of Opium took place, which opened a new chapter in China's modern history. During the War of Resistance against Japan, Dongguan had been a base for the resistance forces in the East River Basin area, where thousands of Dongguan people fought bravely for and devoted their lives to the nation's independence and prosperity.
Dongguan has well-developed transportation and communication systems, abundant supplies of electric power and fresh water also a strong capability to prevent natural calamities. All these advantages have greatly contributed to the development of industry and agriculture.
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