Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Non-Fiction 2020complete | Page 110

Portuguese government allow Macau to serve as an important gateway linking Mainland China with the
international market.
Shenzhen, China’s up and coming Silicon Valley, has much changed from its humble beginnings as a
fisherman's village; to now being the tech manufacturing capital of the world - home to some of the world’s
largest and most innovative Fortune 500 and 100 companies. Moreover, Shenzhen is the city that networks
the large landmass of China with Hong Kong and Macau, establishing it as a hub for regional businesses.
Guangzhou, the commercial hub of China, is the centre of the country’s transportation, industrial and
financial infrastructure and acts as an important trading point with Hong Kong. With a large portion of
China’s GDP from the tertiary industry, through the Greater Bay Area, China hopes there will be an influx
of skilled workers into the province, removing China’s reliance on manufacturing and agriculture whilst
transitioning to being predominantly in the service sector. Consequently, with this inundation of attention
given to Guangzhou, there is an expectation for it to develop into a global metropolis.
With connectivity as a major focus for the Greater Bay Area, China in tandem with Hong Kong and Macau
have collaborated on several key infrastructural constructions which have led to an ease of access between
Hong Kong, Macau and the Mainland.
A clear example of this would be Hong Kong’s Section of the XRL - the Express Rail Link, which
connects Hong Kong with over 29,000 kilometres of the national high-speed rail network. Opened in
September 2018, Hong Kong’s Section of the XRL provides direct train service to 58 mainland destinations,
in addition to greatly shortening the travelling time between Hong Kong and Shenzhen (around 18
minutes), Guangzhou (around 46 minutes) and other cities in the Pearl River Delta. And as of June 2019,
the average daily patronage of the XRL was over 54,000 passengers during weekdays and over 56,000
passengers during weekends; firmly cementing Hong Kong’s position as a regional transport hub.
However, a more notable example of the improved inter-regional infrastructure would be the HZMB: the
Hong Kong - Zhuhai - Macau Bridge. Opened in 2018, the $18.8 billion US dollar bridge spans from the
Hong Kong port to Zhuhai and Macau with a length of 41.6 kilometres. Together with the 13.4 kilometres
long Zhuhai Link Road, the total length becomes 55 kilometres, making it the longest bridge-tunnel sea
crossing in the world. So, what does this translate to in terms of travelling from Hong Kong? The bridge
reduces the travelling time between the Hong Kong International Airport and Zhuhai from 4 hours to
around 45 minutes and incorporates the western side of the Pearl River Delta into a reachable three-hour
commute. Since the implementation of the HZMB, the Hong Kong government has been discussing to
gradually increase the number of cross-boundary vehicles able to use the bridge, and thus increasing the ease
of transport for local businesses and for the general public.
Along with these the following infrastructural plans have been commissioned: the Liantang / Heung Yuen
Wai Boundary Control Point which would be the seventh land crossing point between Hong Kong and
Shenzhen, the Nansha Bridge which would serve as an important expressway across the Pearl River and the
Shenzhen - Zhongshan Bridge which would significantly reduce travelling time. Through these
improvements in transportation, the workforce would be more inclined to explore employment within the
whole Greater Bay Area, making headway on distributing skilled workers throughout the region.
While this initiative proposed by China seems clear in how they will directly benefit from it - with a greater
economy and workforce as well as a more integrated region, less so is said of the two SAR regions Hong
Kong and Macau regarding their objectives within the formation of the Greater Bay Area.
Given this initiative, the Hong Kong government has set its mission on two fronts. First off, allowing the
Greater Bay Area to serve as an attempt to break new ground for local businesses. More importantly, for the
initiative to be a step further in the practice of the “One Country, Two Systems”. With this in mind, this