Greater Bay Area ‘more connected than ever’ as China’s integration plan marks fifth anniversary
- A half decade after its inception, China’s Greater Bay Area strategy for regional integration has strengthened linkages through transport
- New hubs and high-speed railway queues are making travel within area faster and more convenient
In recent years, Chinese authorities have touted greater connectivity between sections of the Greater Bay Area – a long-term plan to integrate Hong Kong, Macau and the populous south of Guangdong province into a vibrant economic hub – and freelance photographer Stella Fang has first-hand experience.
Over the course of a weekend, the thirty-something travelled from Shantou, a city in Guangdong’s east, to Hong Kong and the provincial capital of Guangzhou. She worked, but also enjoyed time off in both.
And Fang’s not the only one. “My friends have expanded their travel radius thanks to the high-speed rail network,” she said. “They frequently travel to cities such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong to attend concerts, or spend the weekend.”
Fang’s trip, which included stops at the new Guangzhou Baiyun Railway Station and Hong Kong Disneyland, would have taken more than twice as long to accomplish even a year ago.
“The cities of the [Greater Bay Area] are more connected than ever. That’s what impressed me most in the past five years, especially with better cross-boundary transport,” said Ivan Zhai, executive director of the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce in Guangdong.
“Hong Kong residents have been hopping over the border to Shenzhen on the weekend to eat and shop. This shows how it is becoming much easier to travel within the region,” added Zhai, who visits places around the area once or twice a week.
Five years ago, Beijing unveiled its blueprint to build a world-leading business environment through the Greater Bay Area, which consists of nine cities in Guangdong, as well as the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau – serving a cumulative population of more than 86 million.
It has been positioned as a world-class city cluster, with the expectation it will rival those surrounding Tokyo, New York and San Francisco.
In 2023, the total gross domestic product of the Greater Bay Area, excluding Hong Kong and Macau, rose by 4.8 per cent year on year to 11.02 trillion yuan (US$1.5 trillion).
Guangdong announced it would contribute over 670 billion yuan to infrastructure construction in the area last year in a move explicitly to accelerate the area’s interconnectivity, including 149.1 billion yuan for the intercity railway network known as “GBA on the Rail”.
Railway queues in use and under construction in the Greater Bay Area are set to total 4,700km by 2025.
China’s 14th five-year plan, the national road map for economic development for 2021-25, set a target for the total length of Guangdong’s railway network to exceed 5,000km. It projected an investment of more than 1.6 trillion yuan.
Fang is one of many already making use of these improvements. After a 90-minute high-speed train ride from Shantou to Guangzhou’s central business district, she photographed the new Guangzhou Baiyun station – now one of Asia’s largest railway complexes.
She then took photos of a pet-themed cafe before taking another high-speed train to Hong Kong.
After filming a tour of a friend’s new home in Hong Kong, she could have caught the last high-speed train back to Shantou. But Fang preferred to spend the following day taking pictures at Disneyland, where the park’s Frozen-themed attraction had opened in December.
“Hong Kong residents have more options to reach different parts of Guangdong, or even other provinces, through convenient air, land, and sea transportation, which has brought convenience to many small and medium-sized enterprises,” Zhai said.
06:19
High hopes for China’s Greater Bay Area, but integrating 11 cities will pose challenges
“If there is anything else to look forward to, I hope the frequency of high-speed rail will be higher.”
The 44 billion yuan Guangzhou Baiyun station, which opened in January, is a major link in Guangdong’s intercity railway network.
In its first year, the station will handle 104 passenger train services, primarily northbound trains running on the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway, the Guangzhou-Shenzhen intercity railway, as well as slow-speed passenger trains.
The local government estimates that more than 50 million passengers will depart from the station annually by 2035, when all planned queues enter operation.
Tourists … have increased a lot as well, creating soaring entrepreneurial opportunities
In a further step toward greater connectivity, a plan to convert two existing stations in the centre of Guangzhou – Guangzhou East Railway Station and Guangzhou Railway Station – into high-speed rail hubs is also in motion.
At present, it takes only 48 minutes to travel from Hong Kong’s West Kowloon station to Guangzhou South station via high-speed rail. However, that arrival point is still about 20km from the centre of the city, and it takes another 40 minutes to reach downtown Guangzhou via the metro system.
Construction is about to begin on a route between Guangzhou and Guangzhou South stations for what is referred to as the Guangzhou-South Link Line.
The 25km journey, with a predicted top speed of 200km/h, will connect Guangzhou South, Guangzhou and Baiyun station by 2027 and cut the travel time from Hong Kong West Kowloon station to Guangzhou’s city centre down to one hour.
Fang said she has already started to receive orders from clients across the Greater Bay Area.
“Tourists to our Chaozhou and Shantou regions have increased a lot as well, creating soaring entrepreneurial opportunities,” she added.
According to HSBC Global Research’s 2023 Greater Bay Area Insight report, Guangdong’s outstanding bank loans for infrastructure had reached 3.2 trillion yuan by the end of June, up by 15.8 per cent year on year, thanks in large part to the ongoing construction of transport networks.
Winnie Wong, a Hong Kong businesswoman who works and lives in Guangzhou, expressed hope these and similar improvements will provide more job opportunities for Hong Kong youth.
“Currently, the number of Hong Kong residents who start businesses and work in neighbouring cities still falls short of expectations,” Wong said.
“The cost of intercity living and transportation and cultural integration remain major challenges. Compared to their peers in the mainland, youth in Hong Kong lack a good understanding of domestic employers and markets. Not much progress has been made on these issues in recent years.”
