Flanked by a huge car production facility on the west and beverage, paper and logistics companies on the east, there are also many high-tech companies making a range of industrial and consumer products scattered all around. Logistics companies flock to the area given the significant customer base, proximity to the port and numerous highway connections. 2km to the southeast JD has even built a kind of mini company city complete with logistics facilities, gleaming new office buildings and supporting facilities such as kindergartens and shops. Another company with a brighter future than ICE car production is a hydrogen fuel cell electrode membrane maker several hundred metres to the east.
The Honda car plant to the west was built in the early 2000s as part of a Japanese JV - it is now producing mainly hybrids - and provided an initial magnet for supporting industries to move in. Guangzhou's main Honda plant is about 5 times bigger and is located in Huangpu District 9km to the west. Strangely the Japanese car-makers have focused on relatively unpopular hybrids and it took until 2022 for them to finally release a first full electric model, leaving them years behind the local competition.
Automated and high-tech production facilities is a defining feature of these enterprises. Even the basic logistics and warehousing faciliities are now increasingly high-tech and automated.
One area where the high-tech companies could do a bit more: provide some high-tech (or even low-tech), high quality parking for the legions of staff taking e-bikes to work and parking along the blueway clustered around the factory compound entrance. And one low-tech area the district government is taking care of for them: excellent bike lanes and attractive public spaces along the blueway, both of which are proving popular among the workers of these plants.