Since the reform and opening-up, Pearl River Delta has accelerated urban-rural integration and developed into a basic world-class city group. The “Zhuhai-Zhongshan-Jiangmen-Yangjiang” region is described the “left wing” of the “Pearl River Delta bird” which has been flying high and fast in the pursuit of economic development.

At present, the state government has been planning the development of “Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area”. As the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge opens and the constructions of Shenzhen-Zhongshan Channel and Shenzhen-Maoming Railway start, cities located in the west side of Pearl River have more regional advantages. In this case, Zhuhai, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Yangjiang have started strategic cooperation in economic, social and people’s livelihood fields basing on transportation and been exploring regional traffic cooperation.

Currently, Zhongshan has new opportunities and challenges to become the regional comprehensive transportation junction in the west side of Pearl River by integrating into the “Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area”.

To invest 140bn yuan on transport network in the next 6 years

The city has commenced the traffic infrastructure construction battle currently. According to relevant planning, Zhongshan is about to invest 140bn yuan on transport network building in the next 6 years’ time, and the first 50bn yuan in the next three years.

So far, Zhongshan is trying to integrate into the Pearl River Delta Traffic system by constructing the “4-longitudinal 5-horizontal” highway network and “3-ring 12-radial” arterial highway network.

Meanwhile, Zhongshan has been accelerating railway constructions including the Shenzhen-Maoming Railway, Nansha Port Railway, extended line of Guangzhou Metro Line#18, and the city’s rail transit system. The first half of 2017, Zhongshan has opened high speed rail service to Beijing, Shanghai, Guilin, Changsha, Guiyang, Kunming, Nanning, Chaozhou and Shantou, Zhengzhou, and etc. At present, Zhongshan is directly connected to the high speed rail network to North China, Central China and East China.

In addition, the new passenger terminal in Ma’an harbor district is under construction. The landing point of the “Water Shenzhen-Zhongshan Channel”, which refers to the waterway route between Zhongshan Port and Shenzhen Fuyong Wharf, will be moved to the new wharf in Ma’an Island in the future. Besides, the “water bus service” between Zhongshan and Shenzhen also started service since August 18, 2017. It is a new “Golden Path” connecting the east and west sides of Pearl River.

Traffic docking

In the future, Zhongshan would focus on traffic docking with surrounding cities. In particular with Zhuhai, Jiangmen and Foshan, there will be more than 30 new channels added to the traffic network. The transportation network for Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Jiangmen and Yangjiang will be significant to the overall economic and social development of the four cities.
The regional traffic development and docking of the four cities will be promoted in three levels: connection of expressways, including the rail traffic and highway traffic; connection of arterial highways, including national roads provincial roads; and connection of other roads, including some inter-city cross roads.