When Chinese leader Xi Jinping entered a grand arena for the country’s 15th National Games in November, there was something different in the air. It wasn’t just that Xi had emerged victorious from a high-stakes trade meeting with US President Donald Trump a week earlier. It was that these national games, unlike the previous 14, weren’t hosted by a single city, but rather the Greater Bay Area — China’s new name for the Pearl River Delta, a region of 11 cities, including Hong Kong, Macau and Shenzhen.
In the weeks leading up to the event, massive banners were hung throughout the three cities touting the Greater Bay Area as host. There was one just outside a sake bar in Hong Kong, where Donald Low, who the bartender affectionately referred to simply as “professor,” spoke to The World.
Low is a professor of public policy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and something of an expert on China’s Greater Bay Area initiative. He said the plan’s goal is to better connect cities through improved transportation networks and infrastructure.
“The idea was to link up these key nodes in the region — nine mainland cities, plus Hong Kong and Macau,” Low explained. “And so, boost domestic consumption, boost domestic demand, as an engine of growth.”
So far, though, that growth has not been evenly distributed. While Shenzhen has experienced significant economic expansion, other cities in the region, including Hong Kong, have “lagged behind the national growth rate of 5%,” Low said.
In Hong Kong — once a thriving tourism hub — the slowdown is visible. Iconic double-decker buses, once packed with tourists, now often pass with only a few passengers on board.
Meanwhile, in Shenzhen, the economy is booming, driven largely by the city’s burgeoning tech industry, buttressed by massive government investment. The contrast between the two cities underscores the uneven growth that characterizes the Greater Bay Area’s development.
Kit, a 20-something professional who splits his time between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, and who asked to not use his full name, believes Shenzhen’s success is undeniable. He described the city’s growth as “extraordinary” and said he plans to settle there instead of Hong Kong due to the ample opportunities available, particularly in the tech sector.
Shenzhen’s transformation began in the 1980s when it became the first city in China to embrace foreign investment and market capitalism. Today, it stands as a model of economic growth, with a thriving tech scene that attracts young professionals from across China and beyond.
According to Professor Low, when the Chinese government first designated Shenzhen as a Special Economic Zone, the idea was to emulate the economic success of Hong, which was then a British territory.
“The explicit mission, explicit goal, was for Shenzhen to learn as much as it can from Hong Kong,” Low said. “It’s very telling now that the question is turned on its head: What can Hong Kong learn from Shenzhen?”
Under the Greater Bay Area plan, Hong Kong is expected to play a crucial role as a financial hub. Shenzhen-based tech companies could raise capital in Hong Kong and list on the city’s stock exchange, strengthening ties between the two cities. The benefits so far, however, appear to have largely flowed in one direction: from Hong Kong to Shenzhen.
That shift is evident on the ground. A new bullet train has drastically reduced travel time between the two cities, with trips now taking as little as 15 minutes. These trains are filled with Hong Kong residents heading to Shenzhen to experience the city’s growth firsthand.
In the past, most cross-border travel was from mainland China to Hong Kong, but now the flow has reversed, with more people making the journey in the opposite direction.
As the Greater Bay Area continues to take shape, it remains to be seen whether the region’s growth will be as balanced as Chinese officials hope. For now, Shenzhen stands as the clear beneficiary of this new vision, while Hong Kong grapples with the challenge of maintaining its own relevance in the face of China’s rapidly evolving economy.
