EACH year during the Spring Festival period, Lingnan comes alive as locals flock to flower markets and stock up on New Year goods. At the first APEC 2026 Senior Officials’ Meeting, held in Guangzhou before the Lunar New Year, attendees tried out a Shenzhen-made cordless guitar and enjoyed a brief moment of impromptu stardom. Guangdong-made products were also showcased at the Milan–Cortina Winter Olympics, where Guangdong heat pumps helped warm venues used by athletes.

These scenes capture how Guangdong goods have evolved with the times — shifting from traditional home appliances to smart tech, new energy vehicles, drones, and digital culture.

Kicking off in Foshan on Jan. 15, the “Guangdong Goods Global Reach” campaign has sparked over 30 key events across industry, commerce, and tourism, with 21 cities and counties participating year-round.

Renowned for quality and craftsmanship, Guangdong goods span continents. Chaozhou’s Dancong tea now reaches Singaporean tea shops; Zhanjiang’s seafood secured 11 billion yuan (US$1.59 billion) in orders at a single event; Zhongshan products entered Shanghai, achieving over 10 million yuan in sales in three days. Behind this success lies relentless pursuit of excellence.

At a home appliance promotion, Zhongshan-based brand Weili displayed a washing machine used for over 40 years, passed from grandmother to grandchild. “We use durable, premium materials and stable core components, inheriting a ‘virtually indestructible’ quality DNA,” said company representative Yu Yuanjiang.

Rooted in Foshan for nearly four decades, Hisense shares this ethos. “Building a brand means creating new categories, maintaining consistently high quality, and cultivating a distinctive identity,” said Zou Hongzhuan, general manager of the company’s Shunde division. “Together, we have built an ecosystem that consistently delivers superior Guangdong-made products.”

Today, Guangdong manufactures across all 31 major industrial categories, with 15 leading nationally. Nine industrial clusters — from electronics to new energy — have each surpassed the 1-trillion-yuan mark, anchored by R&D hubs in Guangzhou and Shenzhen and manufacturing bases in cities such as Foshan and Zhongshan.

At the APEC meeting in Guangzhou, Giampiero Antonazzo of the World Bank Group purchased a Shenzhen-made Insta360 panoramic camera and asked detailed questions about its sales channels in his country, saying he planned to recommend it to friends and family upon his return.

While traditional Guangdong goods once filled households worldwide, the province’s new products like panoramic cameras, smart glasses, and robot vacuums now compete in the mid-to-high end of the global market. They are appearing in overseas supermarkets and tech expos, leading trends with innovation and reliability.

Today, Shenzhen-made drones and pocket cameras are common sights at tourist destinations worldwide. As one foreign travel blogger put it, “They’re affordable, well-made, and indispensable for capturing and sharing life’s best moments.”

Chen Ji of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology noted that from refrigerators and TVs to smart imaging devices, wearables, and drones, technological innovation remains the engine of industrial advancement. As the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster rises among the world’s top innovation hubs, technology continues to propel Guangdong goods forward.

While Guangdong goods go global, the province also welcomes the world’s products. This dual circulation creates a vibrant, competitive, and open marketplace.

At Chile’s Port of San Antonio, workers loaded bright red cherries — colormatched to China’s Spring Festival — onto ships bound for China. More than 90% of Chilean cherries are exported to China, and thanks to efficient logistics and strong demand they can appear on Guangdong shelves within just two hours of the ship’s arrival.

Beyond cherries, global brands are choosing Guangdong for flagship stores and innovation centers. Success here often signals broader acceptance in the Chinese market. Official data show that Guangdong’s imports grew by 7.8% year on year in 2025, underscoring the province’s role as both a top seller and a powerful buyer.

From traditional craftsmanship to smart innovation, the story of Guangdong goods is one of continual quality improvement, market responsiveness, and bold creativity.

The “Guangdong Goods Global Reach” campaign is both a showcase of strength and a fresh starting point — ushering in an era of smarter, more connected Guangdong products ready for the world.(Li Jing)

Guangdong promotion blitz

Jan. 15 — The “Guangdong Goods Global Reach” campaign launched in Foshan with a home appliance promotion.

Jan. 16 — “A Taste of Guangdong, Shared With the World” was hosted in Shantou, inviting guests to celebrate Chinese New Year in the province.

Jan. 20 — Dongguan held a mobile phone promotion event.

Jan. 25 — A consumer electronics promotion took place in Shenzhen.

Jan. 26 — Zhongshan staged a promotion for lighting products.

Jan. 28 — Huizhou hosted a leather goods and footwear promotion.

Jan. 29 — A trade matchmaking event for Guangdong’s specialty agricultural products was held in Beijing.

Jan. 30 — A major promotion for Guangdong’s festive cuisine and agricultural products opened in Shanghai.

Jan. 31 — A promotional series kicked off in Heilongjiang, inviting locals to celebrate Chinese New Year in Guangdong.

Feb. 4 — Zhaoqing hosted a dedicated jade promotion.

Feb. 7 — A food products promotion event was held in Guangzhou.

Guangdong by the numbers

• One in every four express parcels delivered in China originates from Guangdong.

• One in every three mobile phones sold globally hails from Guangdong.

• One out of every two color TVs and one out of every three air conditioners produced in China are made in Guangdong.

• DJI commands over 70% of the global consumer drone market.

• Approximately 80% of China’s exported 3D printers are manufactured in Guangdong.

Guangdong’s competitive edge

Guangdong’s industrial ecosystem is both broad and leading, encompassing all 31 major manufacturing categories — 15 of which rank first in China — and hosting nine 1-trillion-yuan clusters.

Its enterprise structure is exceptionally robust, with over 800,000 industrial firms. This includes more than 76,000 major companies (the highest in China), nine Global 500 manufacturers, 236 national “champion” firms, and 2,614 specialized SMEs.

As a cornerstone of China’s foreign trade, Guangdong contributes over 20% of national import-export volume. Its cross-border e-commerce scale has grown 66-fold in nine years, remaining No. 1 nationwide.