Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge accelerates integrated development of three places

Photo shows a night view of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. (People's Daily Online/Deng Guohui)

At the mouth of the Pearl River, across the vast Lingdingyang waters, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge stretches across the "golden inner bay" of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA).

At 10 a.m., the Zhuhai Highway Port of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge was bustling with traffic. In the outbound lane, a freight truck was slowly making its way through.

"This truck carries electronic equipment produced across the GBA. These equipment were gathered and loaded onto the truck in Zhuhai, and will be sent to the Hong Kong's airport via the bridge, where they'll finally be shipped overseas by air," said a customs officer.

In less than 20 minutes, after a swift check on a "one-stop" customs clearance form, the truck cleared customs and was on its way east across the bridge.

On Oct. 23, 2018, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge officially opened. Over the past six years, this bridge has significantly facilitated interconnectivity in the GBA.

According to statistics, as of Oct. 22 this year, more than 62.3 million passenger trips and over 12.76 million vehicle trips have traveled through the Zhuhai Highway Port of the bridge.

By the end of September, the total value of imports and exports of goods passing through the Zhuhai port of the bridge has reached 942.7 billion yuan ($132.36 billion).

On the western end of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, just a 20-minute drive from the Zhuhai Highway Port along the bridge's extension, lies a Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao warehouse for cross-border commerce.

Photo taken on July 13, 2024 shows a view of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge from Macao. (People's Daily Online/Yuan Xinyu)

Lin Sheng, chairman of the Bay Area Group, which invested in and built the warehouse, noted that since its launch, the warehouse has attracted multiple e-commerce platforms. It receives packages from various regions and then distributes them to Hong Kong and Macao, with peak daily volumes reaching 60,000 packages.

Just a street across the warehouse, there is the Guangdong-Hong Kong Macao Logistics Park. The first phase of the logistics park is now operational, and the second phase has been completed. The park focuses on shipment consolidation and cross-border e-commerce. It is home to 10 logistics companies, cooperating with several e-commerce platforms. The park is seeing steady growth in export volumes.

Further west, there lie a series of key facilities including the Zhuhai Gaolan Port Comprehensive Free Trade Zone and an airport international smart logistics park. The Zhuhai Highway Port of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge has become one of China's major ports for cross-border direct purchase exports. As the logistics infrastructure and services continue to improve, cross-border e-commerce, a new driver of foreign trade, is booming.

Today, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge ports handle cargos from 31 provincial-level regions across China. They receive and ship an average of around 700,000 parcels on a daily basis, which reach over 230 countries and regions.

According to a customs official, the construction of this new trade route has spurred continuous growth in import and export cargo volumes through the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge ports. This year, over 500,000 freight vehicle trips have crossed the bridge, a year-on-year increase of 13.7 percent. From January to September, the total value of imports and exports of goods passing through the bridge reached 164.97 billion yuan, marking a 10.4 percent growth year on year.

Over the past six years, Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macao have continuously relaxed access to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, making road trips to the mainland an increasingly popular option for residents of Hong Kong and Macao.

On a weekend, a Hong Kong resident surnamed Shi drove with his family across the bridge to Zhuhai, enjoying a day of shopping, dining, and entertainment.

A staff member offers technical support to a Macao resident as the latter tries to charge his new energy vehicle in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong province. (People's Daily Online/Zhou Zhiwang)

"Since the 'Northbound Travel for Hong Kong Vehicles' scheme was implemented, it's been so convenient for us to take road trips to the mainland during holidays and tour the GBA," said Shi.

Since the scheme and a similar one in Macao were launched in 2023, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge ports, being the only designated ports for vehicles, have seen a surge in cross-border traffic. Since the beginning of this year, a total of 4.35 million vehicle trips have been inspected entering and leaving through the ports, an 82.8 percent year-on-year increase, and 5.75 times the traffic volume compared to the same period in 2019.

With reduced travel time and expanded living sphere, the GBA's "one-hour living circle" has become a reality, thanks to geographical advantages and the convenience of 24-hour customs clearance.

As of October 22, the total number of "northbound" single-license plate vehicle trips from Hong Kong and Macao has surpassed 3.84 million, and over 35.6 million Hong Kong and Macao resident trips have been made to the Chinese mainland via the bridge.

In response to the growing traffic, a series of customs facilitation measures have been introduced, and various new technologies and models for swift, efficient clearance have been implemented.

The bridge ports have completed upgrades to dual-use passenger and freight lanes, increasing the number of outbound passenger vehicle inspection lanes from 22 to 35. Additionally, customs and border inspection have shifted from sequential processing to parallel processing, improving clearance efficiency by approximately 50 percent. During peak hours, 1,500 outbound vehicle trips can be cleared per hour in a single direction.