¶ … Boom times on the gold coast of China" by Mike Edwards and Michael Yamashita (1997) discusses the industrial boom in the Pearl River Delta. This area of southern China, adjacent to Hong Kong, was experiencing a boom in the 1990s in manufacturing. The authors of the article were writing about it like it was a new things, which I guess back then it probably was. The explored the nature of this boom, touching upon the political and economic system of the PRC, as well as some light economic discussion about talent and capital inflows. Hong Kong was seen as the source for a lot of the influx of talent and capital. This is a big reason why the Pearl River Delta became such a significant manufacturing hub, because Hong Kong served as a gateway for Western money to flow into the region. The article was written around the time of the handover from the British, so the discussion had a lot of relevance, knowing that these flows were likely to increase over time after the transition was made. Looking at the issue from the point-of-view of a geographer, and writing for an audience to whom this information was I guess fairly new, the authors outlined their case for the development of the...

The factors that influenced this developed included the unique economic policies of the Chinese government that encouraged foreign direct investment while retaining social control over the country, in addition to the proximity of this particular region to a global capital hub in Hong Kong. Guangdong had low labor costs to offer, but also the development of port infrastructure to assist with shipping goods out to markets was a key factor. Initially, Hong Kong was this port, but over time there was development of facilities on the Chinese side as well.
Evidence

The authors support the idea was economic and trade figures. They illustrate how rapidly the gains in industrial production and trade have been made, from cities like Guangzhou and Shenzhen. There is information provided about capital flows, and about how southern China was dealing with its shortage of managerial talent. Both were being imported, the latter from Hong Kong and Taiwan, and former from all over the world. By serving as a low cost manufacturing hub, and by building out infrastructure, Guangdong province was becoming a boom area. National Geographic has a different audience from, say, The…