Meizhou was once a dazzling name in the history of urban development in Guangdong Province. In the1980s, the development speed of this city even surpassed that of Shenzhen and became one of the economic centers of Guangdong Province. Meizhou has become a third-tier town, in sharp contrast to its former glory. This change not only makes people feel sorry, but also leads to in-depth thinking on urban development strategy, industrial layout and population management. This paper will discuss the current situation of Meizhou's economic development, analyze the reasons for its slow growth, and discuss how to learn from the successful experience of other cities and put forward the possible direction of Meizhou's future development. In recent years, the economic growth rate of Meizhou has slowed down obviously, and the gap with first-tier cities such as Shenzhen is getting bigger and bigger. According to the data of the first half of 2023, the regional GDP of Meizhou City was 63.802 billion yuan, up 5.3% year-on-year. Although this growth rate is stable, it is obviously different from Shenzhen's GDP of 65.438+0.8 trillion and the growth rate of 9.5%. The economic scale of Meizhou is only 3.5% of that of Shenzhen, which is in sharp contrast with the situation that Meizhou surpassed Shenzhen in the 1980s. At that time, Meizhou, with its rich natural resources and geographical advantages, once became the second largest economic center in Guangdong Province.