The Pearl River Delta is slowly growing into a single colossal megapolis. And as controversy reigns over the continued urban development into the HKSAR’s northeastern territories, we dissect the future of the extravagant sprawling metropolis and see how its emergence will affect – and perhaps eventually kill – Hong Kong.
- As developing metropolises expand magnificently in both size and population, their perimeters blur, merging into one another, giving rise to endlessly interconnected chains of urban zones which have simply been dubbed ‘megacities’. It is a phenomenon of our time – and one, perhaps, which is most incredibly exhibited right here on our doorstep, right across the border in the Pearl River Delta.
- In 2008, the Chinese government unleashed a plan to merge the Pearl River Delta’s nine cities – consisting of Shenzhen, Dongguan and Huizhou in the east, Zhuhai, Zhongshan and Jiangmen in the west, and Guangzhou, Foshan and Zhaoqing in the centre – into a single megalopolis. Essentially, the blueprint proposes a spending of near to RMB2 trillion on more than 150 major infrastructure improvements to forge a colossal network of transportation, water, energy supply and telecommunication.
- “The idea is to create a ‘one-hour-living zone’ encompassing all the nine cities in the Pearl River Delta,” says Zuo Zheng, an economics professor at the Jinan University in Guangzhou. With labyrinths of roads, tunnels, bridges across the delta, as well as intra- and inter-city railways totalling more than 4,000km, the residents of the Pearl River Delta will be able to easily speed from any one of the nine cities to another in an hour or less.
- For now, due to China’s household registration system, a person’s entitlement to public services such as healthcare, education and pensions is tied to his or her place of birth. But in the next few years, all these barricades will be abolished in the Pearl River Delta, enabling a so-called ‘barrier-free circulation’ of public services. Inhabitants of the megalopolis will be able to attend school or stay at hospitals with a government subsidy at any of the nine cities.
- “Such inter-connectedness among the nine cities is beyond the conventional urban agglomeration,” says Zuo. “Instead of considering them to be nine individual, separate cities, it makes more sense to see them as a unified, organic whole with a continuous urban area. It’s fitting to call it a megalopolis.”
- “This integration and development of Pearl River Delta is of a national strategic level,” says Ma Xiangming, chief planner at the Guangdong Urban and Rural Planning and Design Institute. “The vision is to enhance overall regional competitiveness with this new approach to strengthen collaboration, upgrade industrial structure and make use of each city’s competitive advantages.”
- “If Hong Kong’s economy can be devised through a strong regional vision of collaboration with the Pearl River Delta, it can capitalise on its comparative strength and increase overall efficiency and prosperity by optimising resources of the entire region,” says Professor Chan Man-hung of the China Business Centre at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
- “After years of indulging in mostly speculative activities in the bubble economy, now is the chance for Hong Kong to invest in something more practical through economic integration with the Pearl River Delta. If not, Hong Kong will decline and be marginalised as Guangzhou and Shenzhen strive to overtake us.”
Thanks for posting; I have wondered about this in my head before. Great topic to consider I think when these cities grow into each other, it will be the first region to surpass the Bos-Wash corridor in continuous built up human settlement which is where much of our strength as a super power comes from.
Thanks for posting; I have wondered about this in my head before. Great topic to consider I think when these cities grow into each other, it will be the first region to surpass the Bos-Wash corridor in continuous built up human settlement which is where much of our strength as a super power comes from.
It's already more built up and more populous than the Bos-Wash corridor (which thankfully, is not actually contiguous). Likewise for the Yangtze River Delta and the Taiheiyō Belt. The Bos-Wash corridor is more comparable to Europe's "Blue Banana" corridor, which also has over twice the population.
relatively speaking, this is no more continguous than bos-wash, although it certainly will be. but so will bos-wash. whats most interesting about it is the sheer amount of humanity coming down off the hills and dales for the big cities and also the newness of it all. it's quite an unprecedented, amazing and rapid upheaval.
relatively speaking, this is no more continguous than bos-wash, although it certainly will be. but so will bos-wash. whats most interesting about it is the sheer amount of humanity coming down off the hills and dales for the big cities and also the newness of it all. it's quite an unprecedented, amazing and rapid upheaval.
I've got side-by-side Google satellite images open right now and the Pearl River Delta seems considerably more contiguous and compact than Bos-Wash. The former looks like a ball of yarn, the latter like an unraveled strand.
In terms of compactness the whole Pearl River Delta urban area is smaller than LA but fits in over 55 million people. In terms of contiguity the right hand side, from Guangzhou-Foshan through to Dongguan-Shenzhen is now contiguous, effectively the same single urban area (population 37 million), and now considered the second largest city behind Tokyo. Hong Kong (7.3 million) is still separate thanks to the border.
Due to it's relatively 'small' size it shouldnt be considered the same as Bos-Wash or the Blue Banana. The equivalent for that in China would be the much larger Yangzte Delta region, which is the largest collection of adjacent cities in the world (pop 140 million).
also the Eastern third of China is nothing but the most unimaginably vast peppering of towns and cities. All the dots are urban areas:
zoom:
^that's the North China Plain for ya.
The Eastern heartland looks entirely different. This is the 'countryside' made up of rural farmer's apartments. Rather than clumping
together as in the north it's evenly spread into a blanketing sprawl.
This is how China fits over a billion people into only 1/3 the land and still use that third for self sustaining agriculture (the remaining
2/3 is mountain/desert/steppe and non-arable):
at certain angles (when you cut out the paddy fields) it resembles a vast city
It's already more built up and more populous than the Bos-Wash corridor (which thankfully, is not actually contiguous). Likewise for the Yangtze River Delta and the Taiheiyō Belt. The Bos-Wash corridor is more comparable to Europe's "Blue Banana" corridor, which also has over twice the population.
That's not my understanding. Although I have never seen a side-by-side comparison.
And I don't see how the Blue Banana is comparable considering there's the fucking NORTH SEA separating the UK from the mainland?! (I realize there is the chunnel BUT it's not contiguous human development because of the water)
Now I really don't know the size difference in terms of sq. mileage comparison (sq. km's) of the Pearl River Delta but here it is:
And yes, the Pearl River Delta DOES appear to be a smaller "light footprint" than the Yangtze River Delta based on photos.
The Blue Banana should be considered a megalopolis because of its economical and infrastructural connections as much as its physical ones. Yes there is the Channel (only 30 km across though) and the Alps (though continued development in the valleys), but there is little question that this web of urban development is as interconnected or even moreso than the US Northeast.
It doesn't really matter that the urban cores are not connected physically by low density sprawl, the overal density is higher and the infrastructural connections are there.
The Blue Banana should be considered a megalopolis because of its economical and infrastructural connections as much as its physical ones. Yes there is the Channel (only 30 km across though) and the Alps (though continued development in the valleys), but there is little question that this web of urban development is as interconnected or even moreso than the US Northeast.
It doesn't really matter that the urban cores are not connected physically by low density sprawl, the overal density is higher and the infrastructural connections are there.
Could you elaborate? Are we talking high speed rail? What is it that makes it more inter-connected in terms of infrastructure compared to US cities?
Could you elaborate? Are we talking high speed rail? What is it that makes it more inter-connected in terms of infrastructure compared to US cities?
Yes HSR and a dense motorway and train network as well. Also one of the world's most economically important rivers; the Rhine. It's at least as interconnected, what would make it even more interconnected is that it developed over centuries starting with the Roman roads all the way indeed to an elaborate HSR network.
That's not my understanding. Although I have never seen a side-by-side comparison.
As per Shiro's data, the administrative regions within the PRD have 55 million people in 28,000 sqkm, with a built up area comparable to that of Los Angeles. Whereas the counties that comprise Bos-Wash's 52 million people encompass some 145,000 sqkm. That's about the size of Bangladesh - which has 156 million people. If it were a country, it would be the 36th most densely populated.
Bos-Wash is a densely populated corridor of nearby cities (much like the Blue Banana or Japan's Taiheiyō - both of which are also more populated - or basically like the entirety of India or eastern China), but it isn't a "true" megalopolis like the Pearl & Yangtze Deltas (which is most certainly a good thing - that entire region being developed would be truly awful).
The BOS-DC corridor has notable gaps in it - between Baltimore and Philadelphia, for example, so it still needs some filling in. The "Blue Banana" has not just the North Sea but the Alps in the way. Those Chinese regions just stretch on and on. Tokyo appears to be the only thing rivaling it.
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