Once known as the “world’s factory floor,” Dongguan, China, in the Pearl River Delta region, is growing quiet.
Streets that once pulsed with shift changes are now largely empty. Factories have shuttered, rural migrant workers have left, and small businesses that depended on industrial traffic are disappearing. Official data points to a broader slowdown, including a deepening property slump, weakening manufacturing activity, and persistently high youth unemployment.
