Shilong Town

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Shilong (Chinese: 石龙; Hanyu Pinyin: Shī Lōng) is the name of a town in China.

1 Location
2 Transport
3 Economy
4 History

[edit] Location

Shilong town is located within the north part of Dongguan prefecture-level city, Guangdong province, People's Republic of China. It is situated at the central point of the Pearl River Delta, in conjunction with Zengchen and Boluo prefecture-level city, 69 km to Guangzhou city and 78 km to Shenzhen city. The town lies on the beach of the Dongjian river (Chinese: 东江) and the Guangshen railway （Chinese: 广深铁路）passes by.

[edit] Transport

Its convenience in transportation by rail and water makes it a regional industrial and commercial center.

[edit] Economy

Shilong town has a territory of only 12.5 km². It is the smallest town in Dongguan city, even the whole Guangdong province. It has a population of 100,000 people. In 2004, its GDP amounted to 3.66 billion RMB [1] and the scale export income boosted to $1.14 billion. Shilong is very strong in the IT industry. For instance, 2.4 million cameras, 3 million computers and 750 thousand photocopiers and 1.8 million digital laser printers were manufactured in Shilong last year (2004) and most of them were exported.

[edit] History

During the Song dynasty (800 years ago), its first inhabitants settled down in Shilong town. Due to the convenient waterway of Dongjian river, Shilong had become a major hub for food supply and woods in the southern China since the late Ming dynasty to the early Qing dynasty. After the opening of the Kowloon-Canton railway (KCR) at 1910, which passed through Shilong, its status as a traffic and commercial center had been strengthened and its economic boomed. Shilong made its name in history as one of the 'Four Big Town in Canton' (Chinese: 广东四大历史名镇). Thanks to its famous weightlifting world record breaker - Chen Jin-Kai (Chinese: 陈镜开), Shilong also has won its reputation as the 'Home Town of Weight Lifting' (Chinese: 举重之乡).