As the 2026 Guangdong City Basketball League (Yue BA) gets underway, we're launching a poster series that looks at the game through the lens of Guangdong's rich agricultural heritage. Each edition highlights one city and the signature product that defines its industrial DNA.
Now, the series continues with Jiangmen, Yangjiang, and Zhanjiang, three coastal cities, three cultural icons, one rising Guangdong.
Jiangmen, the city that ages to perfection
Golden Rain. Jiangmen Harvest.
In Xinhui District, a humble tangerine peel has been transformed into a billion-yuan empire. Xinhui Chenpi, the "dried tangerine peel" treasured by Guangdong families for generations, is now a national symbol of quality and heritage.
The numbers tell the story. In 2025, the total output value of Xinhui Chenpi's full-industry chain surpassed 28 billion yuan, securing the top position among Guangdong's geographical indications and ranking 17th nationally. The industry employs 78,000 people, with per capita income rising by more than 26,000 yuan. To date, the cultivation area for Xinhui Chenpi has reached 9,333 hectares, with fresh peel output of over 9,600 tons.
But Jiangmen isn't just growing peels; it's building an ecosystem. In December 2025, a 2.87-hectare park with an investment of 190 million yuan was launched, featuring cold-chain logistics warehouses and a digital traceability system that tracks every peel from seedling to shelf. An 800-million-yuan, 5.3-hectare Chenpi Industrial Park is also underway, integrating processing, smart warehousing, business incubation, testing, and research.
Yangjiang, the city that flies high
Flying High. Yangjiang Kites.
Known as the "Hometown of Chinese Kites", Yangjiang is the southern counterpart to northern China's kite-flying tradition. The city's kite culture dates back centuries. Yangjiang's earliest existing county records, from 1681, describe people climbing hills to fly kites on the Double Ninth Festival, a tradition over 340 years old.
In 2024, Yangjiang hosted an International Kite Invitational with 62 teams and 210 athletes from around the globe, the largest in the event's history. The Yangjiang Kite Festival has been named an "Excellent Chinese Sports Culture Festival Project". In 2025, as the 15th National Games brought beach soccer to Hailing Island, kites once again took center stage, with night glow kite carnivals drawing massive crowds.
Yangjiang has integrated its intangible cultural heritage into modern tourism and sports. From kite-themed cultural tourism routes and immersive experiences to night glow kite events and to integrating kite elements into urban landscapes and creative products, Yangjiang is turning its sky into a canvas.
"You can't touch the sky, but you can fly a kite there." On the coast of the South China Sea, where sea breezes meet open skies, Yangjiang has found its rhythm. And on the court, every player knows: to soar, you first must let go.
Zhanjiang, the city that springs to score
Zhanjiang Oyster. Smooth Master.
Zhanjiang is China's undisputed "Oyster Capital", and it's rewriting the rules of the industry.
The numbers speak for themselves. Zhanjiang's oyster farming area exceeds 6,666.7 hectares, with an annual output of more than 400,000 tons, accounting for 35% of Guangdong's total and 10% of China's total. The full-industry chain output value has exceeded 7 billion yuan, and the "Zhanjiang Oyster" brand is now valued at 17.64 billion yuan, ranking second nationally.
But here's what makes Zhanjiang extraordinary. The city is transforming the industry from fragmented to digitized. The "China Oyster Capital" industrial internet platform, launched in 2025, has created a nationwide digital ecosystem that connects farming, processing, logistics, and sales across the supply chain. The platform records the entire lifecycle of each oyster, from seedling to cold chain to dining table, enabling real-time, data-driven matching of supply and demand.
The "China Oyster Capital" development zone, a 104-hectare complex with an investment of 1.078 billion yuan, is well underway. The China Oyster Capital Tower has already reached 81% occupancy, attracting over 20 enterprises. A "shared factory" with a daily processing capacity of 100 tons is under construction, providing standardized cleaning, sorting, purification, and temporary storage services.
From barbecue stalls on the street to sashimi platters in fine dining, from local delicacy to global contender, Zhanjiang oysters are going premium. In October 2025, the "Zhanjiang Oyster" case was selected as a national model for geographical indication industry chain development.
Author & Poster | Jiang Chang
Revised by Huang Qini
