In the evening of 11th September, 2019 (Beijing Time), the Dongguan Basketball 
Center witnessed the long-expected quarterfinals of the 2019 FIBA Basketball 
World Cup, with Team France beating its USA counterpart by 10 points. "Many 
domestic and overseas journalists are drawn to the quarterfinals for live 
report, helping the world know more about Dongguan," said the head of the Media 
Department of the Dongguan Local Organizing Committee of the 2019 FIBA 
Basketball World Cup after the match.

Visited by most basketball players for the first time, though, Dongguan has 
already made connections with them through "Dongguan Manufacturing". Famous for 
manufacturing, Dongguan boasts a modern manufacturing industry system including 
such core fields as electronic information products, electrical machinery and 
equipment, textile, clothing, shoes and hats, paper-making and paper products, 
stationery and sporting goods, and furniture. The manufactured products like 
clothing, hats, furniture and cellphones are sold globally. Dongguan foreign 
trade report on August of 2019 reflects its total import and export volume has 
gone up by 6.8% to around USD 88.906 billion. 

What remains common to manufacturing and basketball, which reveal Dongguan's 
two different aspects, is the underlying culture and spirits of the city.

"Basketball requires teamwork spirit," said Zhang Zhong, a local businessman 
and basketball fan. "Similar to that, Dongguan manufacturing results from 
international industrial-capacity cooperation and benefits from the 
globalization of industrial chains. It has become a world-renowned 
manufacturing city with foreign investment attraction, local production and 
global export," he added.

Statistics show that in 2018, Dongguan introduced about USD 2.1 billion 
contractual foreign investment, growing by 14.4% year-on-year. The number of 
newly contracted foreign direct investment projects increased to 1400. Among 
all the foreign investment projects, there were 102 foreign investment projects 
with over USD 10 million for each, growing by 7.4% year-on-year.

Along with its stable development of foreign trade, basketball teams from 
Dongguan have also obtained remarkable achievements. In 2019, the Guangdong 
Hongyuan Men's Basketball Team won the CBA Championship for the ninth time, 
outnumbering any other teams in CBA history. The Xintongsheng Women's 
Basketball Team won the WCBA Championship for the first time in the same year.  

"Dongguan Basketball Center, as the venue for CBA, has, undoubtedly, 
high-quality equipment. The teamwork spirit, nice decorations and considerate 
services help create a player-friendly experience," Andreas Zagklis, the 
secretary general of FIBA said. "We will bring in more FIBA matches."

Top professional matches flourish in Dongguan, revealing the city's great 
atmosphere for basketball. It has 26,000 and 100 courts and gymnasiums for 
basketball, respectively, with at least one standard basketball court in each 
of the 500 villages and communities within its 32 towns and subdistricts.

"We hope to see NBA matches held in Dongguan and that Dongguan entrepreneurs 
cooperate with their American counterparts for more business opportunities," 
posted a local netizen on social media after the match.

Source: The Dongguan Local Organizing Committee of the 2019 FIBA Basketball 
World Cup