Guangdong's government scholarship provides a tuition waiver and, on some awards, a living allowance as well, which puts it among the more complete provincial schemes in the country. The provincial selection and the universities themselves sit in a genuinely competitive market: Guangzhou and Shenzhen between them hold four of the universities we cover, they host the largest overseas-student population in China, and Shenzhen's hardware industry is a magnet for engineering and electronics students.
The trade-off is cost. Guangzhou and Shenzhen are both in the upper half of our cost table, and Shenzhen's rents run higher than Guangzhou's. An award that includes a living allowance is worth considerably more here than the same award in a cheaper province, because the baseline it has to cover is higher. For engineering, electronics and business students, the combination of scheme and industry is the argument; for everyone else, the cost comparison does the work.