Chinese President Xi Jinping called for further strides in promoting the integration of the Greater Bay Area as he congratulated those behind the construction of a key cross-sea link connecting Shenzhen and Zhongshan that opened on Sunday.
The Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link opened after seven years of construction, spanning 24km (15 miles) and will shorten travel time between Hong Kong and cities along both sides of the Pearl River Delta.
Xi hailed the link as another record-breaking engineering project in the same vein as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge.
“This proves that Chinese-style modernisation is achieved through hard work,” he said.
Xi stressed the link needed to run securely, smoothly, comfortably and intelligently to “play a pioneering role in transport and promote the integrated development of the east and west sides of the Pearl River Delta”.
He also called for greater integration of the bay area, so it could become an example of high-quality development and a leading place in Chinese-style modernisation.
The bay area refers to Beijing’s plan to turn Hong Kong, Macau and nine mainland Chinese cities into an integrated economic powerhouse.
At 2pm on Sunday, Hongkongers lined up at service station in Kwun Tong to board a cross-border bus before it commenced the first journey along the cross-sea passage at 3pm.
The link is designed to handle the huge volume of traffic generated by bay area residents. It includes two bridges and two artificial islands, as well as an undersea tunnel linking Zhongshan and Shenzhen.
The 44.69 billion yuan (US$6.15 billion) eight-lane highway will trim travel times between Hong Kong and Zhongshan from 2½ hours to 1½ hours as coaches and other heavy vehicles no longer need to use Nansha Bridge, north of the older Humen Bridge, to reach destinations on the western side of the delta.
Travel time between Shenzhen and Zhongshan is expected to be reduced from two hours to within half an hour.
Travel between Nansha and Zhongshan will take just 15 minutes, while the journey between Shenzhen and Zhuhai or Jiangmen was halved to one hour.
