Guzhen – China’s Lighting Capital (Zhongshan, Guangdong)

Guzhen – China’s Lighting Capital (Zhongshan, Guangdong)

Guzhen Town lies in Zhongshan, Guangdong, at the junction of Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Foshan (Shunde), adjacent to Hong Kong and Macao, covering 52.2 km². It is the core cluster of China’s lighting industry. The industry began in 1982, when villagers brought a wall lamp sample back from Hong Kong and assembled Guzhen’s first homemade commercial lamps, later pooling capital to set up factories and gradually forming a lighting cluster. In 2002, the China National Light Industry Council and China Lighting Association awarded Guzhen the title “China Lighting Capital”, which passed re-evaluation in 2005 and remains in place today.

On scale, Guzhen’s 2025 GDP reached 17.78 billion RMB with tax revenue of 1.74 billion RMB. The town has more than 87,000 business entities, of which 45,699 include “lighting” in their business scope, plus over 27,000 industrial enterprises, 257 above-scale firms and 30 enterprises with annual output above 100 million RMB. The official lighting cluster, centered on Guzhen and covering 11 towns across three neighboring cities, exceeds 100 billion RMB in annual output. Zhongshan’s 558 above-scale lighting enterprises produced 37.5 billion RMB in 2024, up 4.7%, and self-owned brand products hold over 70% of the national market. The 100-billion figure is the cluster figure; 37.5 billion is the above-scale figure.

Products span from a single decorative lamp to whole-home lighting environments. Decorative lighting, home lighting, commercial lighting, outdoor and landscape illumination, and engineering lighting form the base; above that are smart lighting, healthy lighting, full-spectrum light sources, smart modules and AI emotional interaction; below that are lighting components, driver power supplies, machinery and auxiliary materials. Buyers can view lamp bodies, light sources, drivers, accessories and packaging in one town.

Among leading firms, Opple Lighting started in Guzhen in 1996, listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2016, and posted 7.096 billion RMB in revenue in 2024, covering more than 70 countries and regions with over 110,000 offline and online terminals, and was rated a national-level green factory. Huayi Lighting was founded in 1986 and has focused on high-end decorative lighting for 39 years. Tianji Optoelectronics and Guangsheng Semiconductor have built local capabilities in full-spectrum chip packaging, with extreme-UV LED chips entering Huawei’s Aito supply chain; Songwei Lighting incorporates Lingnan window lattice patterns into pendant lamps. Listed companies such as Opple, NVC, Zhaochi and Foshan Lighting source here year-round.

Guzhen’s moat is its marketplaces. Star Alliance opened in October 2014 with 360,000 ㎡ of floor space and over 600 brand flagship stores; Huayi Plaza covers 420,000 ㎡ with 300+ brands and is a national 4A tourist attraction; Lihe Lighting Expo Center hosts the market procurement trade pilot. The town has eight sub-venues including Star Alliance, Lihe, Huayi, Lighting Capital Times and Guyirui Feng International Lighting Components City, with total exhibition space exceeding 1.5 million ㎡ during the lighting fair; the 35th autumn main venue hosted over 1,000 exhibitors, with 5,413 pre-registered visitors from 126 countries and regions, up 11.06% year-on-year.

Trading methods are also evolving. Guzhen is a national market procurement trade pilot (approved in 2018, based at Lihe Lighting Expo Center) and the only town-level industrial belt among Guangdong’s first batch of “cross-border e-commerce + industrial belt” pilots. In 2025 the town’s cross-border e-commerce exports grew 58% year-on-year; in January–August 2026, B2B transactions on the cross-border e-commerce public service platform grew 88% year-on-year. Two cross-border e-commerce clusters, Wanteng Lighting Expo Center and Huayi Plaza, host 102 upstream and downstream enterprises. Products are exported to more than 130 countries and regions, with Europe and the US as traditional markets and ASEAN, the Middle East, Latin America and Central Asia filling in.

Guzhen suits engineering lighting, hotel and commercial spaces, decorative lighting wholesale, e-commerce selection, outdoor illumination and smart lighting. Small-batch, multi-variety and fast-repeat orders are its strength; market procurement trade supports multi-variety, multi-batch and small-volume container consolidation, ideal for small and medium buyers’ trial orders. OEM/ODM can change structures, materials, color temperature, dimensions, logos and packaging, and support brand-exclusive production. Sourcing tips: distinguish “marketplace” from “factory” — showrooms are mostly in Guzhen while production lines are often in Henglan, Xiaolan and other surrounding towns; prepare certifications by market — CE/ROHS/ERP, UL/ETL, SAA, SASO — and confirm driver power supply and photobiological safety (IEC 62471) separately; audit for ISO9001 and BSCI/Sedex; write color temperature, CRI, flicker, driver brand and warranty into contracts rather than relying on photos. The best way to visit factories is during the lighting fair: browse Star Alliance, Huayi Plaza and the components city by day, and inspect surrounding factories and warehouses at night; sample 3–5 styles first, then discuss annual frameworks. Guzhen suits buyers who want styles, series and fast repeats, not those seeking only the lowest unit price on very large standard orders.