CHANG-AN COUNTY of Dongguan is just one example of where migrants outnumber local residents as they have come to make up the majority of the population in the Pearl River Delta.
Quiet countryside where 60,000 people lived 10 years ago has seen the population grow more than tenfold and the county flourish into a sizeable city.
A more complete illustration is offered by Shenzhen, a fishing village that had about 30,000 people but now is home to seven million people after 20 years of hectic development. According to official statistics, 82.7 per cent of the population are so-called temporary residents, most from inland provinces.
Those 20 years saw a net inflow of 80 million people to the Pearl River Delta, according to Xinhua. In the process, the delta became one of the wealthiest regions in China.
The region needed migrants to work on construction sites and for cheap labour in factories rushing to fulfil export orders.
The region's landscape has been transformed by urbanisation, but the area is now becoming reluctant to accommodate an influx it used to embrace.