This paper aims to analyse the role of Special Economic Zones in the development of industry in China, focusing on Guangdong counties. Special Economic Zones have often been used by governments with the goal of stimulating industrialization. The international literature has analysed these special zones from both a theoretical and an empirical perspective and has yet to come to a shared view on their desirability. In particular, there is a debate in literature that discusses if the establishment of Special Economic Zones is effective in producing spillover effects across any territories, or whether these only take place if the receiving area has already a high level of economic performance. After an extensive description of the types and aims of the special zones existing in China, we turn our attention to test, through a quantile regression methodology, if the role of special zones is changing depending upon the level of industrialization already existing in the counties. In this sense, our work is an empirical attempt to shed some light on the possible uneven distribution of the gains coming from the establishment of development zones.