{"id":521031,"date":"2017-11-22T02:14:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T02:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/?p=521031"},"modified":"2021-06-18T08:44:52","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T08:44:52","slug":"pearl-river-delta-infrastructure-for-china-megacity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/reportage\/pearl-river-delta-infrastructure-for-china-megacity.html","title":{"rendered":"Pearl River Delta: China\u2019s Biggest Economic Hub"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Pearl<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As the bridge under construction stretches 55 kilometres to link Hong Kong with Macao, it crosses the waters of the\u00a0Pearl River Delta<\/strong>\u00a0(PRD), home to\u00a0the largest urban area in the world.<\/strong>
Known as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge for the very places it connects, it sets a record itself as the second longest of its kind in the world. Officially opened on October 23, 2018 by President Xi Jinping after 9 years of construction, the bridge has a section that runs for seven kilometres in a submarine tunnel that passes four artificial islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its construction is costing China $16 billion<\/strong>, part of an ambitious $300 billion plan<\/strong> announced in 2009 to develop a vast infrastructure network to join the nine mainland cities<\/strong> (Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen, Zhaowing) that make up the Pearl River Delta as a single urban area.  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the plan\u2019s goals is to reduce travel time among them as well as nearby Hong Kong and Macao<\/strong> \u2013 both special administrative regions \u2013 to one hour from any which way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly a decade since this plan was unveiled, the Pearl River Delta has won recognition by the World Bank as the largest urban area \u2013 or megacity – in the world<\/strong>, surpassing Tokyo in population and territory: 60 million residents and 56,000 square kilometres. Its gross domestic product (GDP) totals $1.5 billion<\/strong>, greater than that of Indonesia and equal to 9.1% of China\u2019s output<\/strong>, according to the Guangdong Statistical Yearbook 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pearl<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pearl River Delta: China\u2019s Biggest Economic Hub<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although it covers only 1% of China\u2019s territory and makes up 4.3% of its population, the Pearl River Delta is the biggest economic hub in the country<\/strong>. It is responsible for 26.8% of the country\u2019s exports<\/strong>, making it third in trade after the United States and Germany, according to the Yearbook.
The development<\/strong>  \u2013 or urbanization \u2013 of the Pearl River Delta began in the 1980s<\/strong> when China created the Pearl River Delta Special Economic Zone to attract foreign investment<\/strong>. It gave the area a certain degree of autonomy in terms of customs, finance and taxes. Manufacturing companies opened up factories<\/strong>, creating a vibrant economic centre<\/strong>. And it keeps on growing as technology companies have followed: its population is expected to reach 80 million<\/strong> with a GDP of $2 trillion by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bridge is but one of 150 projects<\/strong> identified by the government under its \u201cPlan for the Reform and Development of PRD\u201d in sectors like energy, transport and telecommunications. Another one is a railway network of 29 lines<\/strong> covering 5,000 kilometres among the nine cities. On the urban planning front, three of the 20 tallest skyscrapers in the world are to rise in the area by 2020<\/strong>, giving the PDR the highest concentration of such buildings anywhere. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pearl<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The PDR\u2019s proximity to Hong Kong, a global financial centre, has also contributed to its development. An average of 500,000 people commute between it and the city, a number that is bound to rise thanks to a number of public works like the Express Rail Link. By the 23th of September, 2018, it connects West Kowloon, Shenzhen and Guanzhou with a 48-minute ride on high-speed trains travelling up to 200 kilometres per hour.
Official PDR figures show how\u00a0passenger numbers exceed 1.6 billion a year<\/strong>, while 2.7 billion tonnes of goods are shipped. The PDR\u2019s four main ports – Guangzhou, Yantian, Shekou and Shenzhen \u2013 make it the third largest in the world by container volume after Shanghai and Singapore. These\u00a0strategic assets<\/strong>, along with\u00a0ambitious infrastructure projects like the bridge and railway network<\/strong>, are putting the PRD on a path of\u00a0virtuous growth<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the bridge under construction stretches 55 kilometres to link Hong Kong with Macao, it crosses the waters of the\u00a0Pearl River Delta\u00a0(PRD), home to\u00a0the largest urban area in the world.Known as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge for the very places it connects, it sets a record itself as the second longest of its kind in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":521028,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[19015,19017,19016,19003],"yst_prominent_words":[5106,2267,5093,1944,17073,14844,5103,5091,5087,5086,8743,5092,5088,5104,15920],"class_list":["post-521031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reportage","tag-asian-continent","tag-city-of-tomorrow","tag-demographic-boom-and-megacities","tag-global-investments"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521031"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":547242,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521031\/revisions\/547242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521031"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=521031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}