{"id":53,"date":"2011-08-01T01:50:24","date_gmt":"2011-08-01T05:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chinacenter.net\/?p=53"},"modified":"2023-04-19T10:59:57","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T14:59:57","slug":"hong-kong-and-macau-two-dynamos-in-chinas-pearl-river-delta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinacenter.net\/2011\/china-currents\/10-2\/hong-kong-and-macau-two-dynamos-in-chinas-pearl-river-delta\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong and Macau: Two Dynamos in China’s Pearl River Delta"},"content":{"rendered":"
In the waning days of their colonial existence, Hong Kong and Macau were like mismatched cousins. Hong Kong was a roaring entrep\u00f4t of commerce while Macau was a sleepy backwater sustained mainly by gambling. Fourteen years after Hong Kong was handed back to China, and 12 years after Macau returned to Chinese sovereignty, the cousins are starting to look very different. Hong Kong is still holding its own as a dynamic industrial and financial center. But Macau has blossomed, becoming in many ways unrecognizable.<\/p>\n
In this paper, I seek to offer a brief explanation of the development of the two regions since the handover and explore some of the challenges each has experienced in the search for new and productive roles as Special Administrative Regions within the PRC. This search has provided an urgent impetus for both cities not only to identify and follow an appropriate and effective track on which to return to China, but more immediately to seek the appropriate role for their evolving integration into what has emerged as one of China\u2019s most dynamic city-regions – the Pearl River Delta (PRD).<\/p>\n
Today the PRD, if we include the more than 7 million people in Hong Kong and the more than half-a-million in Macau, comprises a booming city-region with a population of more than 50 million. Its economic output and linkage to the global economy puts it at the leading edge of China\u2019s remarkable economic growth. We estimate its contribution to China\u2019s gross domestic product as roughly 10% of the nation\u2019s total output.<\/p>\n
Hong Kong and Macau are located on the east and west flanks respectively of China\u2019s Pearl River Delta. (Fig. 1) They are located at what may be viewed as the feet of two legs of a triangle with Guangzhou (Canton) at the head. These are three of the core cities of the booming city-region surrounding the estuary of the Pearl River in southeastern China\u2019s Guangdong Province.<\/p>\n