In just one month, it will be the Spring Festival of the Year of the Horse, and the streets of Lingnan are bustling with activity. Cantonese folks often say, "Only after strolling through the flower market is it truly the New Year." Families young and old, holding pinwheels, weave through seas of flowers and crowds of people, seeking the good fortune symbolized by "having a great run of luck." While the locals are "walking the flower market," various "magical devices" made in Guangdong are simultaneously "traversing the world" at the foot of the Alps, thousands of miles away. Guangdong-manufactured heat pump air conditioners operate stably in extreme cold of minus 20 degrees Celsius, ready to bring warmth to athletes at the Milan Winter Olympics; new energy buses from Guangdong carry tourists through the streets and alleys of Europe. This scene is a snapshot of "Guangdong goods" after weathering the storms of time. They have moved beyond the era characterized by "Pearl River water, Guangdong grain, Lingnan apparel, and Yue household appliances" towards the new technological wave of "smart home appliances, new energy vehicles, industrial robots, drones, 5G phones, and digital cultural creations." As the year's plan lies in spring, the journey progresses from "walking the flower market" to "traveling the world"—on one side, a joyful folk custom "walk," and on the other, a commercial "journey"跨越 mountains and seas. On January 15th, the "Guangdong Goods Go Global" spring campaign will kick off in Foshan. This event not only inaugurates the annual promotion of Guangdong goods worldwide but also serves as a condensed window into the evolutionary history of "Made in Guangdong," allowing observation of how Guangdong's intelligent manufacturing continuously reinvents itself and maintains its leading position.

The breadth of its reach: "Bold enough to adopt, even bolder to surpass." The character "行" is wonderfully versatile, meaning both "to walk" and "to be capable." In Shunde, a major hub for China's home appliance industry, inside a smart factory producing air conditioner outdoor units, robotic arms perform precise assembly, unmanned AGV carts shuttle materials, and all 86 production processes have achieved full automation, with key processes being unmanned. Not far away, in a livestreaming base, Guangdong home appliance companies use cross-border live streams to push energy-efficient air conditioners with AI algorithms and voice-controlled smart kitchen appliances directly to the screens of global consumers in real-time. KUKA robots, under the Midea Group. Rewind to the 1990s. At that time, a great tide rose from the Pearl River; workshops across the land of Southern Guangdong roared like thunder. "Pearl River water" filled shelves nationwide, "Lingnan apparel" adorned streets and alleys, and "Guangdong grain" nourished billions of dinner tables. Leveraging the timing of reform and opening-up, the advantage of proximity to Hong Kong and Macao, and a pioneering spirit, Guangdong surged forward dramatically, unveiling the prologue to the legend of Guangdong goods. The secret to its breakthrough success lay in this – "Cantonese people are not only bold enough to 'adopt,' but even bolder to 'surpass'." "The first domestic gas water heater was reportedly produced by the Beijing Gas Appliance Company, and the Nanjing Fast Water Heater General Factory was the first to achieve batch production scale. But later, Shunde's Shenzhou and Macro water heaters emerged, posing a huge threat to Nanjing's Yuhuan brand, Shenyang's Shenleman brand, Guangzhou's Good Luck brand, and Chengdu's Qianfeng brand... Last year, Shenzhou alone produced and sold 410,000 water heaters, accounting for one-fifth of the market sales that year, firmly holding the top position..." This is an excerpt from the front-page report "The 'Formidable' People of Shunde" in the Economic Daily on May 10, 1992, depicting a scene from Shunde's home appliance industry. Behind this vivid account lies the reflection of Guangdong's inherent vitality, rooted in the marketplace, daring to compete fiercely, and innovating through imitation. At that time, starting from "three supplies and one compensation" processing trade, in the small workshops of Ronggui Town, Shunde, workers labored day and night. Microwave ovens from Midea and Galanz flooded the nation, with one out of every three bearing the Guangdong mark; Gree's production lines ran incessantly, forging the golden reputation of "Look to Guangdong for China's air conditioners." By 1995, Guangdong's home appliance output value led the nation, with production volumes of air conditioners, rice cookers, and microwave ovens all topping the charts. "Yue household appliances" joined the aforementioned three to form the "Four Treasures of Guangdong Goods," becoming a collective memory of an era. Behind this was the fertile ground of policy liberalizing markets and encouraging private enterprise, and the initial formation of a "government guides, market leads" ecosystem. By the late 1990s, Guangdong was home to over ten thousand home appliance enterprises, having completed the perilous leap from imitation and承接, to digestion and absorption, and then advancing towards independent R&D and branding. The quip, "From afar it looks like foreign goods, up close it's Guangdong goods," aptly captured the cutting edge with which Guangdong goods led consumer trends.

The substance of its capability: From "scale manufacturing" to "systematic innovation." When praising someone's great skill or something's excellent utility, we might give a thumbs-up and say, "Truly capable!" The reason Guangdong goods can "travel" the world归根结底 is because they are "truly capable." Entering the 21st century, facing rising costs and global competition, Guangdong manufacturing did not rest on the laurels of "cost-performance + scale" benefits but embarked on a "second venture." This was a more profound, and more challenging, transformation: moving from factor-driven "manufacturing" to innovation and system-reliant "intelligent manufacturing." Data outlines the vast scale and structural changes of today's Guangdong manufacturing: nine trillion-yuan industrial clusters have taken shape. The operating revenue of industrial enterprises above designated size is projected to exceed 19 trillion yuan by 2025. There are over 800,000 industrial enterprise legal entities, with the number of industrial enterprises above designated size ranking first in the country. Seventy percent of the world's consumer drones, forty percent of smartphones, forty percent of China's industrial robots, and eighty percent of service robots are produced here. Among the 104 industrial products tracked by the National Bureau of Statistics, Guangdong accounts for over 10% of 44 types and over 20% of 23 types. Traditional industries are being reborn from the ashes. In the home appliance sector, the fact that "one out of every two color TVs and three out of every three air conditioners in China are made in Guangdong" is not just a statement of scale but a benchmark of quality and efficiency: Gree Electric's "pilot-level" smart factories have increased production efficiency by 200%; TCL Air Conditioner's Guangzhou Intelligent Manufacturing Industrial Park has achieved 100% digital coverage. In the textile and garment industry, Zhongshan Shaxi's intelligent production mode has increased capacity by 40%; Dongguan Xinlang's functional fabrics serve 137 global markets; Guangdong Esquel's waterless dyeing technology has reached "international leading" levels, saving 40 liters of water per garment. In the food industry, Haitian's "Lighthouse Factory" uses AI to optimize fermentation, reducing overall energy consumption across the supply chain by 15%; Guangzhou Restaurant Group's Likoufu Company introduced automated production lines, achieving a daily mooncake production capacity exceeding 3 million pieces. Emerging industries are强势崛起. DJI drones command 70% of the global consumer market; Huawei, OPPO, and Vivo account for 30% of global mobile phone shipments; the domestic market share of industrial robots from Gree and Midea is frequently climbing. The domain of "Guangdong Intelligent Manufacturing" has expanded from household appliances to the frontiers of life sciences: its medical device industry scale, number of pharmaceutical manufacturers, and other indicators consistently rank first nationally; from original anti-cancer new drugs moving from the lab to the global stage, to leading-output gene sequencers, innovative pharmaceuticals and devices are becoming a strategically significant component of the "New Guangdong Goods." Supporting the "smooth passage of Guangdong goods worldwide" relies on Guangdong systematically "getting three things right": First, innovation drive, boasting 236 national-level manufacturing champion enterprises and 2,614 specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative "Little Giant" enterprises, with valid invention patents consistently leading. Second, strengthening the industrial chain, with the local配套 rate of core components in industries like home appliances significantly提升, and the "15-minute industrial circle" enhancing极致 efficiency and resilience. Third, digital and intelligent empowerment, vigorously promoting the deep integration of AI, big data, and manufacturing, giving traditional industries "smart wings." The competitive logic of Guangdong goods has long evolved from单一 product competition to a comprehensive contest involving industrial chains, innovation chains, and value chains.

The origin of its journey: The convergence of manufacturing foundation and innovative vitality. Walking the flower market seeks smooth sailing; traversing the world requires composure and resilience. It is no coincidence that the first stop of the "Guangdong Goods Go Global" spring campaign is located in Foshan. This city serves as a prime sample for observing the iteration of Guangdong goods. It embodies the厚重 past, vibrant present, and promising future of Guangdong manufacturing. This is soil rich in manufacturing. As a core of Guangdong's manufacturing, Foshan reached a total of 1.71 million market entities in 2024, an increase of 8.5%, added over 1,000 new industrial enterprises above designated size,累计突破 100 national-level specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative "Little Giant" enterprises, and had 102 companies listed in the "Top 500 Guangdong Manufacturers" ranking, the highest number in the province. Foshan's home appliance industry revenue accounts for nearly 30% of the provincial total. Foshan has developed a "one town, one product" characteristic, with an extremely high industry配套 rate,聚集了 giants like Midea and Galanz along with over a thousand supporting enterprises, and is building a "15-minute industrial circle" with surrounding areas. This deep industrial base is the springboard for Guangdong goods to go global. This is the澎湃现场 of industrial transformation. By 2025, Foshan aims for high-end, intelligent, and green development, promoting the transformation and upgrading of traditional优势 industries like home appliances and home furnishings, building materials, food and beverage, and textiles and apparel, adding 1,000 industrial enterprises undertaking technological transformation, and consolidating and enhancing the core competitiveness and market share of优势 industries. Simultaneously, it is making large-scale布局 in ten innovation-led characteristic manufacturing parks, accelerating projects like the Midea Group Innovation Technology Park, CATL Brunp integrated new materials, Transfar新型功能化学品, and Shenglu新一代智能通信设备, promoting the completion and operation of projects like Orbbec's 3D visual perception intelligent manufacturing base, Guangdong New Green's Modern Chinese Medicine South China Headquarters Base, and Wencan's new energy vehicle parts intelligent manufacturing, to foster the grouping and clustering of emerging industries and the gathering of momentum. Reports indicate that Foshan enterprises have seen an average productivity increase of about 16% through digital transformation, a microcosm of the current evolutionary speed of Guangdong goods. This is an advantageous starting point for linking to the globe. Foshan, leveraging the Tanzhou International Convention and Exhibition Center, is creating a new model of "exhibition + livestreaming + transaction," becoming a benchmark for the integration of "manufacturing + e-commerce." Located in the heart of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Foshan enjoys both the cost advantages of industrial clusters and the叠加 advantages of policies, making it the optimal starting point for Guangdong goods to connect globally. Choosing Foshan意味着 the Guangdong goods journey departs from a solid manufacturing origin, advancing towards broader global markets.

The distance of its travel: Re-narrating the global impression of "Chinese Intelligent Manufacturing." So, after traversing over forty years of wind and rain, what exactly is the appearance of today's "New Guangdong Goods"? It has transcended being a mere geographical label of origin, becoming a systemic synonym for "high-quality manufacturing." Spatially, it is the collaborative network of Midea's 63 global bases; technologically, it is the ecosystem of Huawei's Harmony OS enabling the interconnection of all things, it is Esquel's green revolution in waterless dyeing; in form, it is both drones flying globally, electric vehicles speeding on racetracks, innovative drugs conquering diseases, and digital cultural IPs going overseas to generate revenue. The current New Guangdong Goods is a cluster of智慧化, high-value-added products and services融合了 hardcore technology, green理念, cultural内核, and a global perspective. Data attests to the global influence of the "New Guangdong Goods": Guangdong's home appliance exports exceeded 530 billion yuan in 2024, accounting for nearly half of the national total; the智能家电 industry scale of the Greater Bay Area accounts for nearly 30% of the global share. The mascot "Big Bay Chicken," which gained popularity through the National Games, has become a spokesperson for the Greater Bay Area cities走向全球, with its货值预计 to突破 ten billion yuan during the Spring Festival... Guangdong goods are reshaping the global impression of "Made in China" in多元形态. "Bold enough" to adopt, even more daring to surpass; embracing the market, while also defining the future. This is the most profound force enabling Guangdong goods to travel the world and consistently lead the tide. In the future, as special actions like "Intelligent Electricity Made in Yue," "Wearing Yue Fashion," and "Yue Food Gets Better" deepen, Guangdong goods will gallop across the globe with smarter, greener, and more culturally rich姿态. And this spring campaign starting from Foshan will become another milestone in the new journey of Guangdong goods. In this era full of variables, you can always trust "Made in Guangdong." Because Guangdong goods not only travel far, they are truly "capable"!