Xi Jinping's southern tour

Xi Jinping’s southern tour refers to the five-day trip to Guangdong and other places by Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, after taking office in December 2012. During the trip, Xi repeatedly emphasized "vigorously promoting reform and adhering to opening up" and described reform and opening up as "the key move that determines China’s fate”. The route of Xi Jinping’s Southern Tour was roughly the same as the Guangdong section of Deng Xiaoping’s southern tour in January 1992. He was accompanied by Wang Yang, a Politburo member who is considered a reformist, and visited local veteran cadres from the time of Deng’s Southern Tour. It was also called the “New Southern Tour” by the media.

Unlike his predecessor Hu Jintao, who chose Xibaipo, Hebei, the "command post" of the final stage of the Chinese Civil War, as his first destination after taking office as General Secretary in December 2002, Xi Jinping chose Shenzhen, Guangdong, a key area for reform and opening up, as his first stop, rather than Yan'an, the important revolutionary base of the CCP where he had spent six years; foreign media paid close attention to this. Xi Jinping's father, Xi Zhongxun, also served as the Party Secretary of Guangdong at the beginning of the reform and opening up.

On October 22, 2018, when the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge opened, Xi Jinping visited Zhuhai, marking his second visit to Guangdong in six years.