Wonders old and new in China’s Greater Bay Area, a land of opportunity Hong Kong and Macau have been invited to join

Of all the regions of China that have modernised since its opening to the world in 1978, none has changed faster than the Greater Bay Area.

Reading Time:2 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

The Pearl River as it cuts through central Guangzhou. The Greater Bay Area economy is poised to explode, and both Hong Kong and Macau have an invite to the party, argue David Dodwell and Thomas Bird in a new book. Photo: Liang Wensheng

David DodwellandThomas Bird

Published: 6:15pm, 29 Oct 2021

Ever since Deng Xiaoping opened China to the world in late 1978, areas in and around the Pearl River Delta have seen the fastest growth during the country’s subsequent rise to become the second-largest economy in the world.

Its now nine municipalities, dominated by Guangzhou and Shenzhen, have been linked with Hong Kong and Macau to create a region of 56,000 sq km (21,600 square miles) with a population of 86 million, known as the Greater Bay Area (GBA).

While the GBA accounts for just one per cent of China’s land area, it has five per cent of its population, 12 per cent of its gross domestic product and a stunning 35 per cent of exports.

The GBA has been, and plans to continue to be, the beneficiary not just of the diversity of its own economy but also of massive investment from Hong Kong and preferential policies from Beijing.

Shekou and Chiwan are sites of the western docks of the Port of Shenzhen. Photo: Wu Guoyong

The Cantonese Opera Museum, completed in 2016, in Liwan, Guangzhou. Photo: Liang Wensheng

Part of this vision was brought to reality by Xi Zhongxun, Communist Party secretary and Guangdong provincial governor between 1978 and 1981 – and father of China’s current leader.