Zhongshan City, a prefecture-level municipality under the direct jurisdiction of Guangdong Province, has 24 affiliated towns and districts. Located at the south mid of the Pear River Delta, it covers a total area of 1,800 sq km. It borders Guangzhou on the north and is adjacent to Hong Kong and Macao SARs. With an annual average temperature of 22 degrees centigrade, Zhongshan has a permanent population of 1,350,000. It is the birthplace of Dr. Sun Yat-sen,the great forerunner of Chinese democratic revolution, and is also a famous ancestral homeland for overseas Chinese. Over 800,000 overseas Chinese living in 87 countries and regions around the world including Hong Kong and Macao SARs and Taiwan Province can trace their ancestry to Zhongshan.

As one of China's coastal open cities, Zhongshan has put great efforts to implement the strategy of Strengthening the City through the Secondary Industry. A few hi-tech intensive industrial parks have been successively set up, including National Packaging and Printing Base, National Health Technology Park, Electronic and IT Industrial Base and the Hi-tech Park for Privately-run Businesses. A diverse product structure has been basically formed with the hi-tech industry as the powerhouse and the quality products as the competitive edge. A batch of industrial brand names of domestic and international fame have been created, such as Robust beverage, Yale-Guli locks, Aestar fine chemical industry, Vantage gas utensils and Kawa electronics. The economy of local distinctiveness is developing vigorously, including those of metal fittings in Xiaolan Town, lighting products in Guzhen Town, casual wear in Shaxi Town, rosewood furniture in Dachong Town, airconditioners in Nantou Town and foodstuff in Huangpu Town. These products are taking up a substantial market share in China. More than twenty enterprises in Zhongshan were invested by those of the Fortune Top 500. Its GDP reached 41.553 billion yuan in 2002, while its total industrial output value amounted to 134.402 billion yuan.

Zhongshan's investing environment is very attractive. The city boasts of a total road mileage of 1,153 kilometers with a road network extending in all directions, mainly composed of national trunk roads, local trunk roads and Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway. Within a radius of 90 km, there are five big airports in vicinity of Zhongshan, located respectively in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Hong Kong and Macao. Railways have access to all parts of China via Guangzhou. Currently, with the opening of Shenwan Port, Zhongshan has established three major ports, including Zhongshan Port in the east, Shenwan Port in the South and Xiaolan Port in the North. Among them, the annual traffic of containers at Zhongshan Port ranks among the top ten in China and top 100 in the world. It only takes 75 minutes from Zhongshan to Hong Kong by hydrofoil. Zhongshan has sufficient supply of water and electricity. A broadband, speedy and large-capacity information network has been established, with the city proper as the pivot linking all towns and districts and large and medium-sized enterprises. Zhongshan Information Highway has come into being.

In recent years, Zhongshan has successively obtained such honors as National Clean City, National Advanced Unit in City Planning and Management, National Garden City, National Advanced City Practising Rejuvenation through Science and Technology, National Model City of Environmental Protection, China's Excellent Tourism City, National Advanced City in the Campaign of Building Culturally-advanced Cities and Guangdong Culturally-advanced City. In 1997, the city was selected by the United Nations as the recipient of Habitat Scroll of Honor Award.