[5] The villages of Longjiang and Yanjiang were selected as the location of a new seaport after the establishment of Cangnan County in 1981,[5] during China's Opening Up Period.

[7] The new port area was promoted to town status in 1983,[5] incorporating another three nearby villages, but Lingxi was left as the county seat.

1 Document of China's State Council provided that "farmers who can live self-sufficiently can be given the hukou of city and town dwellers".

Longgang quickly opened its hukou to any farmers who bought land to construct new houses or who owned businesses in the town.

Its population continued to boom as more people came in from the countryside, reaching 40,000 by 1989, and it became a center of the Chinese printing industry.