Agriculture is so prominent here that almost 65% of the local population is into the farming sector. The reason for this large scale investment and sustenance of agriculture in Zhongshan is attributed to the fact that there are rich deposits of alluvial soil brought here by the Pearl River, over the thousands of years that it has flown through this region. Other places in the River Delta were just too pre occupied with industrial set ups that almost no space for agriculture was left and it is here, at Zhongshan, that people made their medieval occupation the new boom keyword – agriculture. Raw materials produced here include lychee (a sweet fruit, used mostly in making refreshing drinks), banana, rice and sugar cane. Sugar cane is also used in making local alcoholic beverages here. It is a known fact that alcoholic drinks manufactured by fermentation of Sugar cane have a less negative impact on the overall health of the consumer, and it is this fact that many companies that have entered here are using to market their products.
Horticulture is also an industry by itself in Zhongshan and the chrysanthemum grown here is known the world over for its unparalleled beauty and elegance. Many florists and students come to Zhongshan in order to explore the vast potential that lay in horticulture business here.
Like most cities in the Pearl River Delta, Zhongshan is also not totally untouched with rapid industrial development, and the main reason for this is its vicinity to Hong Kong and Macau. Zhongshan is a testimony, a perfect paradigm of the concept of TVEs – Township and Village Enterprises, wherein, provisions by Chinese economic reformists were made that one village or one township within a particular town shall excel in one particular industrial vertical. Some examples of townships and their corresponding industries at Zhongshan are Huangpu town (food industry), Xiaolan town ( acoustics and electrical and electronics industries) and Dachong town (furniture industry, specially Mahogany furniture). Dachong furniture is popular worldwide, in markets if US, Australia and Japan specially.
There is a lot of competition among furniture manufacturers here, and this is evident as soon as one sets foot in Dachong and sees hundreds of furniture showrooms lined on both sides of the street, each claiming to provide better discounts and quality than the other one. Some showrooms here also have the provision of getting the furniture delivered at your doorstep anywhere in the world. Furniture industry has a good economic potential in Dachong because of the existing infrastructure that is poised to support long term profitability in the furniture market over here.
Zhongshan is also home to several labor intensive industries and offers good investment opportunities in the relatively raw industrial market here.