Dongguan 东莞Dōngguǎn

About Dongguan

Nicknamed the 'world's factory' for its electronics, clothing and furniture plants, Dongguan is also where the Qing commissioner Lin Zexu destroyed seized opium at Humen in 1839, an act that helped set off the First Opium War. The Opium War Museum and Humen Forts keep the pools where it was done and the forts guarding the river mouth. In the old town, Keyuan is one of Guangdong's four great gardens, and Nanshe and Tangwei Ancient Villages keep Ming and Qing clan halls beside their ponds.

Listed sites in Dongguan

18 sites in Dongguan are on the official lists. Those with a page of their own link to it; the rest open as cards on the map.

• Dongguan Exhibition Hall 东莞展览馆 4A scenic area · on the map
  A city exhibition hall in Nancheng that tells the story of Dongguan's growth into a manufacturing city.
• Dongguan Science and Technology Museum 东莞市科学技术博物馆 4A scenic area · on the map
  Dongguan's municipal science museum, opened in December 2005 in Nancheng district, with hands-on galleries built around two main themes: manufacturing technology and information technology.
• East River Column Memorial Hall and Dalingshan Base Sites 东江纵队纪念馆 4A scenic area · National heritage site · on the map
  A memorial museum in Dalingshan town on the East River Column, the Communist-led guerrilla force that fought the Japanese in the Dongguan, Huiyang, Bao'an and Hong Kong area during the Second World War.
• Guanyin Mountain National Forest Park 观音山国家森林公园 4A scenic area · on the map
  A forested hill park in Zhangmutou town, south-east Dongguan, with a Buddhist temple and a large Guanyin square near the summit.
• Huayang Lake Wetland Park 华阳湖湿地公园 4A scenic area · on the map
  A national wetland park around Huayang Lake and the creeks of Mayong town, on the Pearl River delta in north-west Dongguan.
• Keyuan 可园 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  A compact Lingnan-style garden in Guancheng, built in the 1850s by the retired Qing official Zhang Jingxiu and counted among the four celebrated gardens of Guangdong.
• Longfeng Villa Film and TV Resort 龙凤山庄影视度假村 4A scenic area · on the map
  A themed park in Fenggang town, opened in 2005 with Hong Kong investment and built around wedding photography, with mock European castles, a fairy-tale town and street sets that also serve as film backdrops.
• Nanshe and Tangwei Ancient Villages 南社村和塘尾村 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  Two walled Ming and Qing clan villages in eastern Dongguan, listed together as a national heritage site in 2006.
• Opium War Museum and Humen Forts 鸦片战争博物馆 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  The museum in Humen town stands where the imperial commissioner Lin Zexu publicly destroyed confiscated opium in 1839, the event that led to the First Opium War, and its grounds keep the two destruction pools, rebuilt in 1957.
• Songshan Lake 松山湖 4A scenic area · on the map
  A large reservoir lake at the heart of Dongguan's Songshan Lake high-tech park, with lakeside parkland laid out from 2002.
• Xiangshi Zoo 香市动物园 4A scenic area · on the map
  A privately run zoo in Liaobu town with more than 100 species, among them giant pandas, Asian elephants and Siberian tigers, many kept in open enclosures rather than cages.
• Yinping Mountain Forest Park 银瓶山森林公园 4A scenic area · on the map
  A forest park across the hills of Xiegang, Qingxi and Zhangmutou towns in south-east Dongguan, the largest in the city, rising to Yinpingzui (898 m), Dongguan's highest peak.
• Yinxian Villa Resort 隐贤山庄 4A scenic area · on the map
  A leisure resort on a wooded hillside in Changping town, with landscaped grounds, hotels and family attractions such as a small zoo, amusement rides, a water park and a glass bridge.
• Yiyi Art House Museum 逸颐艺舍博物馆 4A scenic area · on the map
  A private museum in Hengli town built on a local family's collection of Chinese art, gathered since the 1970s.
• Former Residence of Jiang Guangnai 蒋光鼐故居 National heritage site · on the map
  The family house in Nanzha village, Humen, where Jiang Guangnai was born in 1888; he commanded the 19th Route Army when it fought the Japanese landing at Shanghai in 1932, and later held posts in the government of the People's Republic.
• Haogang Midden Site Museum 蚝岗遗址博物馆 National heritage site · on the map
  A Neolithic shell-midden site in Nancheng, where an early settlement left heaps of oyster shells along with pottery and stone tools.
• Quejin Pavilion Stele 却金亭碑 National heritage site
  A Ming stone stele of 1542 in the old centre of Dongguan, recording how the Panyu magistrate Li Kai, sent to regulate foreign trade, refused a gift of money from Siamese merchants.
• Shilong South Bridge of the Kowloon–Canton Railway 广九铁路石龙南桥 National heritage site
  A single-track railway bridge of 1907–1911 that carried the old Kowloon–Canton Railway over the southern branch of the East River at Shilong, and is regarded as the oldest surviving railway bridge in Guangdong.

On the map

Open Dongguan on the illustrated map to see its outline, its places and listed sites together, and to add them to a trip.

Learn more

• Wikipedia
• Official website
• Wikipedia (Chinese)