Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 2020 | Page 77

Hong Kong Young Writers Awards 2020
Greater Canton, Year 2080
St. Paul’s Convent School, Wan, Jasmine – 15
How did we get here? Xiao Lu looked up the history texts on the formation of the
Greater Bay Area.
Today the Greater Bay Area in southern China has exceeded the GDP of Tokyo by 25%.
Its population has grown to 100m, and Hong Kong and Macao are fully integrated into China
in what is known as the Greater Canton Area. Some 60 years ago, the concept of the Greater
Bay area to integrate 9 cities and 2 special administrative regions was enacted and the merger
began. Over the next 20 years, the merger took shape, with many challenges and successes.
Xiao Lu loved history, and most of all her ability to envisage in her mind the picture of
the Greater Canton Area 60 years ago was helped by technology. At a click of her 3D pen,
the 3D image of each city filled her bedroom. Hong Kong was and still is an amazing place.
Skyscrapers were tall back then but the newer office and apartment blocks were not as tall.
Xiao Lu read in an article that the Government had introduced a new law to limit the height
of buildings. It was environmentally driven as the theory was that tall buildings trapped
fuel and air conditioner emissions which created pollution that was not good for the health
of the population. But this was a blessing as the skies were now clear and open to drone
traffic. Xiao Lu made a note to fly there on her drone in a couple of weeks. Her friend He
Wei was living there and she wanted to have lunch or dinner with her, and maybe do some
shopping afterwards.
She noted that the MTR was more for tourists these days. Going down escalators and
lifts to the MTR station concourse and taking a train around the city was more for nostalgic
purposes. Who would want to travel on the underground with nothing to look at? Nowadays,
Canton Area residents travelled stylishly by drone unless the area was drone free.
The world’s largest tech company in Shenzhen made the first commercial people
carrying drone 25 years ago. Now everyone uses drones. They’re still expensive but getting
cheaper. There are fewer electric vehicles on the expressways now. 60 years ago, there used
to be heavy vehicle traffic and no drone traffic. Almost all the cars, lorries and buses ran on
petrol or diesel, causing heavy pollution. Nowadays in the Canton Area there is much less
vehicle traffic. Indeed, some expressways have a reduced number of lanes, freeing up land for
people to use.
Buzz-Buzz. A 3D hologram of a girl’s head appeared two feet away from Xiao Lu. It
was He Wei.
“Hey Xiao Lu, sorry to disturb you. Are you coming down to Hong Kong?”
“Hi, He Wei, no problem. Yes. I do intend to come down in 2 weeks’ time. I’m just
studying the history of Greater Canton.”
“Ugh, that sounds boring. I’ve never understood your fascination with history.”
“It’s not boring, He Wei. See?”. Xiao Lu made a wavy gesture with her left hand and
the 3D hologram of He Wei was allowed to view the other 3D cities that Xiao Lu was
perusing. “Hong Kong was beautiful back then. Did you know it used to be known as Pearl
of the Orient?”
“Wow. It must have been a special place. All the cities look alike nowadays.”
It was true. There was no difference between Guangzhou, Zhaoqing, Zhuhai and
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