Abstract: The main purpose of this research is to study the evolution process and spatial disparities of foreign investment in Guangdong province since China’s reform and open-door. Wrth the changes of international situation and national economic policy. five stages of foreign investment in guangdong were divided according to the quantity. the source and the industrial sectororiented of the foreign investment. These five stages are the starial sectororiented of the foreign investment. These five stages are the starting stage(1979-1984) . the expanding stage(1984-1986) .the adjusting stage (1986-1989) . the dropping stage(1989-1990) and the rising stage(after 1991) sequently. The spatial disparity of foreign investment distribution in Guangdong and its causes were analysised with the aid of Factor and Regression analysis in which 95 counties and cities in Guangdong were chosen as the cases. The five factors abstracted from 22 varibles were the driving force of economic development, scale of the region, location, agriculture status and the assembling degree of nonagriculture industry. The general interrelation coefficient between the regional geographic situation (or investment condition) represented by the five factors and the quantity of foreign investment is 0. 9054. The result revealed that the foreign investment in guangdong had been increasin unsteadyly from 1979 to 1992. The regional disparities of foreign investment existing in this period were mainly resulted from the difference in geographic and human situations between the sub-regions of Guangdong. Study results suggest that the regional policies to attract foreign invesment should focus on improving the investment conditions and keeping the continuity of national economic policy.

Key words: reform and open-door, Guangdong, foreign investment, regional disparities, temporal evolution