Today, there is a vibrant 100-mile long Chinese economic corridor from the island of Hong Kong that extends throughout the mainland Province of Guangdong, which contains the city of Guangzhou (formerly Canton). Among the 1.3 billion Chinese, there is now an historic mass migration of hundreds of millions of peasants from rural China to cities like Guangzhou in search of a better life. Booming economic growth on such a vast scale inevitably has brought with it not only a rapidly expanding middle and upper class, but also deepening problems for urban immigrants' living conditions, systemic corruption, the pervasive pollution of land, water, and air, as well as product and worker safety problems. Chapters: Hong Kong, Economic Catalyst; Guangzhou (Canton) & Regional Agriculture; Shenzhen: Special Economic Zone; China, Recent History; and Cultural Changes.