For over two millennia Guangzhou has been a successful trading port located at the confluence of two regional growth corridors that extend south, one towards Macau on the west and the other on the east towards Hong Kong along the Pearl River delta. Guangzhou has sustained its leading position for commerce using strategies that include the transformation from single centered city to multi-centered regional city; the formation of a new Central Business District; and the expansion of the westerly and easterly growth corridors. A new plan was needed to transform this area of large single use industrial blocks with wide service streets for truck access into new mixed developments organized as neighborhoods for housing and commercial retail, along with smaller industrial districts providing a proper jobs-housing balance.

The new plan recognizes the importance of the Guangzhou Development Area through an eightfold strategy that extends the growth corridor of Guangzhou towards Hong Kong; encourages dense and mixed-use areas; realizes sustainable and resilient development; offers cultural land uses to enrich civic life; promotes innovation through university and industry collaboration; and achieves connectivity to natural settings by embracing the mountains and connecting to the river. The plan provides an overall transportation framework with mobility options including public transit and a road system with redundant routes to minimize congestion. It also identifies development opportunities for establishing a new urban center, along with a comprehensive open space network offering bike and pedestrian routes, including trails which find their way into the surrounding mountains.