When Zhou Cunan moved to Zhongshan in 2018 after his Shenzhen molding factory extended its reach to the western Pearl River estuary, he was tapping into the region's growing potential for transformation, with city boundaries gradually blurring and the "one-hour living cycle" gaining impetus within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Previously, Zhou lived in Shenzhen's Guangming New Area and would travel to Zhongshan weekly, driving for hours over 100 kilometers each way.

"Going home was miserable, especially when you got stuck in a traffic jam," reminisces Zhou, the operating manager at the factory of Hong Kong-based Hongrita Holdings, which specializes in manufacturing precision plastic injection molds and plastic products.

Initially, he could only commute via Humen Bridge, taking up to five hours for a one-way trip during heavy traffic congestion. The condition improved when Nansha Bridge came into service in 2019.

Last month's inauguration of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link (ShenZhong Link) - seen as one of the world's most challenging multifaceted engineering projects - has significantly eased intercity travel. "The travel time between my workplace and home has been reduced by more than half. I can now get home in just 40 minutes at the fastest," says Zhou.

The 46-billion-yuan ($6.33 billion) cross-sea link opened to traffic on June 30 after seven years of construction.

Hongrita, whose factory is located just several kilometers from the link's starting point in Zhongshan, is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the project. The company's development path is the epitome of the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry in the GBA.

Hongrita set up its Zhongshan base in 2014, well before construction work on the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link began. Its Shenzhen facility had been operating for two decades. "As business grew, we had to expand production. But, it was difficult to secure more land for development in Shenzhen due to the city's industrial policies at the time," recalls Benjamin Liang, special assistant to the company's chief executive officer and human resource director of Hongrita.

The company set its sights on Zhongshan after an inspection trip organized by the Federation of Hong Kong Industries in 2013. The Cuiheng New District, where the Hongrita's base is located, had only just been set up and its facilities were still underdeveloped. The firm, however, was impressed by the warmth and professionalism of the local government.

"Zhongshan shares similar culture with Hong Kong and its residents could travel to Hong Kong by ferry in one-and-a-half hours. Taking government services, culture and transportation into consideration, we decided to invest in Zhongshan," says Liang.

Hongrita's Zhongshan facility covers 72,000 square meters, compared with 28,000 square meters at its Shenzhen base. The number of its workers in Zhongshan has risen from about 100 to more than 1,400.

The Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link will promote the flow of people and goods between the two cities, with the travel time between the two facilities being shortened to about 50 minutes from two hours, Liang notes.

Communication with Hongrita's headquarters in Hong Kong will also be enhanced. While the Hong Kong base deals mainly with marketing and financial affairs, research and development is carried out at the Zhongshan facility.

Liang says the problem of soliciting talent, which had been a major headache for the company initially when it relocated its factory to Zhongshan, is no longer an issue. "With improved connectivity among cities in the GBA, more professionals will be willing to work in Zhongshan."

He said he expects the company's annual transportation costs to be cut by 600,000 yuan to 700,000 yuan as the new infrastructure link smoothens communication with clients on the eastern Pearl River estuary, and more players in the industry chain move their businesses to Zhongshan.

Complementary development

In recent years, development of cities on the eastern side of the estuary outpaced those on the west, with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region playing a striking role in the process. Soaring land and labor costs in the SAR in the 1980s forced many manufacturing enterprises to move to nearby cities on the Chinese mainland, including Shenzhen, Dongguan and Huizhou. The shift brought not only capital and talent to cities on the eastern side of the Pearl River, but also advanced technologies and management models.

While Shenzhen has emerged from a small fishing village into a metropolis with gross domestic product hitting 3.46 trillion yuan last year, Dongguan has become the world's manufacturing hub, generating over one trillion yuan in economic output the same year.

In comparison, Zhuhai, Zhongshan and Jiangmen on the western side of the estuary have developed at a much slower pace, with inconvenient transportation being a major obstacle in their development.

Before the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge in October 2018, goods from cities on the western side of the estuary had to be transported to Shenzhen or Dongguan before arriving at Hong Kong International Airport. The process would take at least three to four hours.

Despite being geographically adjacent to Macao, these cities could hardly benefit from Macao's development as the SAR traditionally relies on the gaming industry.

Although Zhuhai and Shenzhen were approved by the National People's Congress Standing Committee - the country's top legislature - as special economic zones in August 1980, the former's GDP stood at just 423 billion yuan last year, or roughly 12 percent of Shenzhen's. Zhongshan, meanwhile, was ninth in the economic rankings in the 11-city cluster in the GBA with a GDP of 385 billion yuan.

The large gap offers enormous space for cooperation, given the complementary advantages of Shenzhen and Zhongshan. Shenzhen is known for its strong technological innovation capability, but enterprises face challenges in the city's development due to its shortage of land and the high cost of labor.

Zhongshan has a strong manufacturing base, with 33 out of 39 major industrial categories. The city boasts key industrial clusters - electronic information, equipment manufacturing and home appliances - with each generating over 100 billion yuan in annual economic output.

Land in Zhongshan is also much cheaper than in Shenzhen. Ray Wu, managing director for Shenzhen at international real-estate services provider Savills, says prices of industrial land and industrial parks in Zhongshan have remained low. The opening of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link is expected to lift the value of such assets as they will enjoy the dual benefits of industrial shift and land appreciation.

According to Savills, the average price of industrial land for sale in Shenzhen stood at 1.29 million yuan per mu, or 19.25 million yuan per hectare, last year, while that in Zhongshan was 700,000 yuan.

The price gap in the secondary market was even wider. The average sale price of Shenzhen factories amounted to 22,000 yuan per square meter in 2023, while Zhongshan's was only 18 percent of that price, or 4,037 yuan per square meter. "With cheap land resources and a sound industry chain, Zhongshan is well-positioned to absorb the industry spillover from Shenzhen," predicts Wu.

Zhongshan enterprises could take advantage of Shenzhen's technological and innovative resources to address the challenges in research and development and make technological breakthroughs. This would help Zhongshan upgrade its industrial system and promote its high-quality development, he says.

The combination of Shenzhen's innovative technologies and Zhongshan's manufacturing prowess will greatly enhance the overall competitiveness of enterprises in the GBA, says Xie Xiaosi, general manager of Zhongshan-based LK Injection Molding Machine Co - a subsidiary of Hong Kong-headquartered LK Group.

The equipment manufacturing company has set up bases in Shenzhen and Zhongshan, with the former focusing on developing new products and the latter on production. Its Zhongshan base currently has 600 employees, who are mostly technical workers. The firm intends to increase the scale of the base and hire more middle and high-level professionals to carry out research and development there.