Guangdong, abbreviated to Yue, is a province with a history of 2,222 years. No matter when it is in the modern or contemporary history, Guangdong has always played an important role in the development. According to history, Guangdong is Chinese earliest trading port, which is also the starting point of "Maritime Silk Road", and as early as in the Tang Dynasty, Guangdong had become a famous trading port in the world. Back to the Qing Dynasty, Foshan City was one of the "Four Famous Towns" and handicraft-industry center. Concerning the culture aspect, Guangdong is famous for its long history Lingnan Culture (also called Southern Cantonese Culture). Guangdong is characterized by the Guangfu culture, Chaoshan culture and Kejia culture.

Eversince the 1980's, the Pearl River Delta has attracted attention from the world as it developed into a platform for international economic & trade communication. The permanent population in Guangdong is 93,040,000, gathering 53 ethnic minorities out of the total 56 minorities. On the other hand, Guangdong is home to over 30,000,000 overseas Chinese, who are now scattered around the world.

The foreign trade in Guangdong keeps growing rapidly. In 2007, the gross import & export value was USD634,049,000,000, 20.2% up to last year.The export volume was USD369,246,000,000, up 22.2%, import volume was USD264,803,000,000, up 17.5%,reaching a trade surplus of USD104,443,000,000, an increase of 27,754,000,000. The general export volume was USD105,006,000,000, up 31.2%. The processing export volume was USD246,173,000,000, up 18.1%. The export volume of state-owned enterprises was USD105,006,000,000, up 17.4%. Foreign investment enterprises export reached USD246,173,000,000, up19.7%. Private enterprises' export volume was USD65,164,000,000, up 37.8%. According to industry categories, the electronic machine export volume was USD253,252,000,000, up 23.8%. The high-tech products export volume was USD128,348,000,000, up 23.8%. The garment&textile export volume was  USD41,987,000,000, up 18.4%. The export volumes of Shoes, furniture, plastic products were 14.6%, 29.7% and 14.1% respectively. The electronic machines import volume was USD167,154,000,000, up 18.7. And the high-tech products import volume reached USD100,864,000,000, up 13.5%.

Among the main resources products, the below products import amount maintained to grow up: Ironsand: 9,828,600,000 tons, up 63.1%, crude oil: 12,885,400 tons, up 10.5%, Coal: 14,561,400 tons, up 16.7%. On the contrary, the following products import volumes declined: Aluminium oxide: 174,700 tons, dropped 37.8%, Product oil: 8,223,000 tons, down 18.6%, Cotton yarn: 751,600 tons, down 2.0%, Synthetic fiber: 319,2000 tons, dropped 8.3%, Steel: 7,592,200 tons, down 8.5%, Copper material: 733,000 tons, down 7.4%, Alumina: 307,400 tons, dropped 2.3%.

The import & export amount with main trading partners:
The total amount with Hong Kong, America, Japan, UN and ASEAN were  USD409,180,000,000, which took up 64.5% of the province's gross import & export amount. The import & export amount with Hong Kong was USD136,374,000,000, up 21.1%, America: USD86,777,000,000, up 10.2%, UN: USD73,546,000,000, Japan: USD56,522,000,000, up 17.7%, ASEAN: USD55,960,000,000, up 26.7%. The increase rate of export amount to Africa, Latin America, Middle East and Russia were 56.2%, 47.1%, 55.4% and 118.6% respectively.