Bay Area Updates | Spontaneous Travel Within the Greater Bay Area! Guangdong Builds a Modern Transportation System

As China’s busiest port of entry and exit, the Gongbei Port handled a total of 134 million passenger trips in 2018, up approximately 5% year on year. It has ranked first nationwide for the seventh consecutive year, serving as compelling evidence of the frequent cross-border movement of people among Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao.

According to officials from the Gongbei Customs, the port has, for the first time, implemented a new inspection model—“joint inspection, one-time clearance”—with the key innovation lying in the white demarcation line beneath travelers’ feet. To the left of this line is labeled “China Border Inspection”; this station is operated by China’s border control authorities. After passengers present their valid documents here and undergo verification by Chinese border officers, the adjacent “Macao Public Security Police Force”—the Macao border control authority’s information‑verification desk—can seamlessly take over the process. This means that travelers need only pass through a single, continuous inspection to complete what would traditionally require two separate checks, significantly enhancing convenience at the口岸.

This highly convenient inspection model is being replicated and rolled out. According to the plan, by the end of 2019, the departure hall at the Hengqin Port and the new second‑channel Qingmao Port will both be completed, while the Lotus Bridge Port in Macao will be relocated in its entirety to the Hengqin Port, implementing a “one‑time inspection, one‑time release” regime.

The Humen Bridge and the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge, built to form a major transportation corridor linking Hong Kong, Zhuhai, and Macao, are nearly 100 kilometers apart. Whether travelers take the southern or northern detour, both routes entail considerable time and distance. Consequently, at locations 30 kilometers from the Humen Bridge and 38 kilometers from the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge, the most critical horizontal link of the “A”‑shaped backbone spanning the Pearl River estuary has been constructed: the Shenzhen–Zhongshan Passage.

The Shenzhen–Zhongshan Link is located 38 kilometers from the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge and spans a total length of 24 kilometers. It is another world-class mega‑project integrating tunnels, artificial islands, bridges, and underwater interchanges, following in the footsteps of the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge. Notably, its eight‑lane ultra‑long immersed tunnel will set a global precedent.

The chief engineer of the Shenzhen–Zhongshan Link stated that the project boasts numerous innovative highlights. Taking intelligent construction for cross-sea projects as an example, the team developed China’s first intelligent manufacturing line for steel‑shell immersed tunnel segments, achieved the country’s first-ever intelligent welding and painting of tunnel blocks, and designed and built the world’s first integrated transport‑and‑installation vessel. Additionally, the project pioneered the world’s first twelve‑hammer coordinated vibration‑driving technology and set a world record by constructing an island using 57 large cylindrical caissons, each with a diameter of 28 meters, in just four and a half months.

Whether it is the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge, the Nansha Bridge, or the Shenzhen–Zhongshan Link, Guangdong Province has steadily accelerated the development of its transportation infrastructure in recent years, laying a solid foundation for advancing the construction and development of the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area.

By the end of 2018, the Pearl River Delta region had a total of 4,361 kilometers of expressways, with a density of 7.9 kilometers per 100 square kilometers; in its core area, this density has surpassed that of the metropolitan regions of New York, Tokyo, Paris, and London.

According to a spokesperson from the Guangdong Provincial Department of Transport, by the end of 2022, the Greater Bay Area’s capacity to support and safeguard its transportation infrastructure will be further strengthened, and a highly efficient, convenient, modern, integrated transport system will essentially take shape, broadly reaching the current world‑class standards of leading global bay areas. This will enable the realization of a “12312” transportation network: within the region, core travel times of one hour will be achieved between Hong Kong–Shenzhen, Guangzhou–Foshan, and Macau–Zhuhai; land travel to all cities in eastern, western, and northern Guangdong will take approximately two hours; connections to neighboring provincial capitals will be accessible within three hours by road; and links to major global cities will be attainable within twelve hours. Looking ahead to the end of 2035, a fully modernized, comprehensive transportation system will be in place.