Situated in the south central part of Guangdong Province and to the east of the Pearl River estuary, Dongguan lies in the heartland of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Initially a county in the Eastern Jin dynasty, called Bao'an from AD 331 until AD 757 in the Tang Dynasty when it changed name to the current Dongguan. "Dong" means east in Chinese referring to its location east of Guangzhou, and "guan" being a kind of native grass growing in profusion on this land. Becoming a county-level city in September 1985 and upgraded to a prefecture-level city in January 1988, it now encompasses four urban sub-districts and 28 towns, with an area of 2,460 square kilometres and a population of 8.46 million (as at the end of 2019), which includes 2.51 million registered permanent residents. Some 200,000 overseas Chinese and 900,000 compatriots in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan have their ethnic origin stemming in Dongguan, making it a renowned homeland for overseas Chinese.

Taiping Handbag Factory, China's very first enterprise involved in processing and assembly with given materials and parts or compensation trade, was founded in Dongguan in 1978 when China kicked off its reform and opening-up drive. Since then, Dongguan has quickly transformed itself from a traditional agricultural county to an internationally renowned manufacturing city. As a perfect showcase city, Dongguan is designated as one of China's 18 exemplary regions in reform and opening-up. In 2019, its GDP increased by 7.4% to 948.25 billion RMB, and its total import and export reached 1.38 trillion RMB, ranking third among China's Top 100 Foreign Trade Cities for three consecutive years. These statistics are supported by reports issued by authoritative organizations, such as the Renmin University of China and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Dongguan's government-business relations index, Internet Plus index, and comprehensive economic competitiveness ranked first, eighth and thirteenth respectively nationwide. The people’s livelihood development index ranks third among prefecture-level cities in the country. The vitality, quality and charm of Dongguan's development continues to improve.