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(Bloomberg) – Another step in China's Hong Kong project is over and is expected to connect former European outposts of Hong Kong and Macao to the mainland.
The $ 15 billion, 55 km (46 km) long bridge, which according to Xinhua is the longest shipping lane in the world, opened at 9 am on Wednesday and is expected to carry 29,000 cars and trucks a day between Zhuhai, mainland and Hong Kong. , a former British colony. The waters on which the bridge is located were once guarded by three navies and the land borders were guarded by the People's Liberation Army decades ago to prevent most deserters from leaving.
This project is part of President Xi Jinping's vast plan to turn the so-called Greater Bay Area in southern Guangdong province into a high-tech mega-city that rivals Silicon Valley, California. . It also envisions a better marriage between Chinese industrial power and its one-party state and the liberal capitalist strongholds of Hong Kong and Macao, which have their own passports, currencies, trade policies, courts and civil rights.
The Greater Bay Area could serve as a new growth engine for Hong Kong's financial markets, Macau casinos, a former Portuguese colony, and near Shenzhen, the economic hub of one of Xi's predecessors, Deng Xiaoping. , built at their door almost four decades ago. According to HSBC Holdings Plc, the region – with 67 million inhabitants – would benefit from a trillion dollar economy and become the world's fourth-largest exporter.
The sea bridge is the latest to connect Hong Kong directly to the mainland. In September, the city is connected to China's 15,500-kilometer high-speed rail network, with a new futuristic terminus overlooking Victoria Harbor. A train from Hong Kong to Beijing would now take nine hours and cost less than half the price of the plane ticket.
Eiffel Tower
About 400,000 tons of steel were used to build the bridge, or enough to build 55 Eiffel towers, according to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Authority. By bringing Hong Kong closer to the less developed parts of Guangdong, this link will help reduce travel time by road to Zhuhai from three hours to about 30 minutes.
The bridge was built on one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, with more than 4,000 vessels and 1,800 daily flights, carrying more than 20 million people and 1.2 billion tonnes of cargo every year. The region is also known for its annual typhoons and rare marine species, including China's white dolphins.
– With the help of Adrian Leung.
To contact Bloomberg News staff about this story: Sam Nagarajan in Hong Kong at [email protected], John Follain in Rome at [email protected], Dong Lyu in Beijing at [email protected]
To contact the editors in charge of this story: Brendan Scott at [email protected], Anand Krishnamoorthy at [email protected], Sam Nagarajan
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