Shilong

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Shilong (Chinese: 石龙; Hanyu Pinyin: Shī Lōng) is a town in Dongguan prefecture-level city, Guangdong province, People's Republic of China.

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.

Contents 1 Location 2 Transport 3 Economy 4 History

[edit] Location

Shilong town is located within the north part of Dongguan prefecture-level city. It is situated at the central point of the Pearl River Delta, in conjunction with Zengcheng and Boluo County, 69 km to Guangzhou city and 78 km to Shenzhen city. The town lies on the beach of the Dongjiang River 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

In 2004, Shilong's 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).