With a total length of 24 kilometers and seven years of construction, the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor, a world-class super project spanning the east and west banks of the Pearl River Estuary, was officially opened to traffic on June 30.
Viewed from the air, the Pearl River Estuary is an inverted V-shaped inner bay. In the past, driving from Zhongshan on the west bank of Lingdingyang to Shenzhen on the east bank had to detour along both sides of the Pearl River estuary, which took about two hours.
Today, the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor connects two cities that were once far apart and turns them into close neighbors.
After the opening of the river, it will effectively promote the efficient flow of industrial, economic and cultural elements on the east and west banks of the Pearl River Estuary.
For Zhongshan, as the first stop to undertake Shenzhen's people, money and materials, it will bear the brunt of the development dividends brought by the "bridge economy".
At the other end, Shenzhen will gain "incremental space" from the west bank of the Pearl River Estuary to reduce enterprise costs and promote the further development of high-tech industries.
In addition, the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor is also of great strategic significance for promoting regional integration, industrial transformation and upgrading of the Pearl River Delta, and accelerating the economic development of the east and west wings of the Pearl River Delta.
Hu Gang, a professor at Jinan University and the founding president of the South China Urban Research Association, said in an interview with a reporter from the Times Weekly that after the opening of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor, the siphon effect and diffusion effect on the east and west banks of the Pearl River Estuary will be carried out at the same time.
In this regard, Hu Gang believes that in the face of both opportunities and challenges, cities on the west bank of the Pearl River should find space for win-win cooperation, and enhance their competitiveness while absorbing innovative resources from Shenzhen and other cities.
Why is the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor significant?
The importance of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor can be seen at a glance by studying the geographical pattern of the Pearl River Estuary.
The map shows that the Pearl River originates in the Maxiong Mountains of the Wumeng Mountains of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, flows through six provinces in central and western China and northern Vietnam, and flows downstream into the South China Sea from eight estuaries.
The sediment carried by the river is deposited and formed at the mouth of the sea to form the Pearl River Delta. An inverted V-shaped estuary divides the east and west banks of the Pearl River estuary into two.
For thousands of years, the two sides of the Pearl River Estuary have become unreachable because of the separation of a water in the Lingding Ocean.
For the Pearl River Delta region, if you want to integrate development, it is particularly important to break the dilemma of this traffic bottleneck.
In 1997, the first bridge connecting the east and west banks of the Pearl River estuary, the Humen Bridge, was completed and opened to traffic. After the opening of the Humen Bridge, the mileage of the two sides of the strait has been shortened by more than 120 kilometers, and the situation of "one river separated by the end of the world" has been rewritten.
However, with the acceleration of economic integration in the Greater Bay Area, it is clear that a single Humen Bridge is not enough to support the full responsibility of cross-strait exchanges. Therefore, it is urgent to reduce the transportation pressure of the Humen Bridge and speed up the connection between the east and west banks of the Pearl River Estuary.
To this end, in the past ten years, Lingding Yangli has "painted" a series of "horizontal" - Nansha Bridge, Huangpu Bridge, and Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge have been completed and opened to traffic, building a "golden inner bay" and "A" shaped transportation network skeleton.
However, when the cities on both sides of the Pearl River Estuary have successively formed a "CP", Shenzhen and Zhongshan, which are located in the middle line of the east-west river and sea in the Greater Bay Area, have not been connected to the key horizontal.
△ Shenzhong Passage Source: Picture Worm
"Among the seven cities of Shenzhen, Dongguan, Guangzhou, Foshan, Zhongshan, Zhuhai and Macao, only Shenzhen and Zhongshan do not have a major passage. After the opening of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor, the Greater Bay Area has realized the city-to-city bridge, which is the most significant change. Song Ding, a researcher at CDI, a national high-end think tank, told a reporter from Times Weekly.
Song Ding believes that the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor is the hub of the "cross-river and sea-sea middle line" zone of the golden inner bay of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and will become the channel with the greatest comprehensive influence among the several channels that have been built in the Pearl River estuary.
"The northern line is the area where Guangzhou connects Dongguan and affects Foshan, and the Humen Bridge and Nansha Bridge are the main roads of the east-west cross-river and sea north line of the Greater Bay Area; The southern route is the area around Hong Kong, Macao and Zhuhai, which is mainly connected by the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge; The middle line is the area around Shenzhen, Zhongshan and Nansha, Guangzhou, and the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor that will be opened to traffic is the hub channel of the middle line. ”
Song Ding believes that the north-south cross-river and sea space on the golden inner bay of the Greater Bay Area can be divided into northern, middle and southern routes. For many years, there has been no other large-scale cross-river and sea passage in the interval of about 60 kilometers from the Humen Bridge on the north line to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge on the south line, resulting in the need to bypass the Humen Bridge on the north line between Shenzhen and Zhongshan on both sides of the strait, which is as long as two hours, which will obviously have a substantial and significant supporting role in the science and technology, economic and trade, cultural and social development of the areas on both sides of the channel.
"From the perspective of large traffic, the line in the center is the most cost-effective line for the overall situation. In the golden inner bay of the Greater Bay Area, judging from the current layout of each channel, it is obvious that the Shenzhong Channel, which is located in the middle line of the north-south cross-river and sea, has the advantage of being in the middle that is difficult to be matched by other channels, and will become the most cost-effective and efficient channel. Song Ding said.
The three metropolitan areas are closely connected
The connection of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor is not only geographical, but also economic, social, cultural and other exchanges. From this point of view, the construction of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor is not only a transportation engineering project, but also a strategic measure related to the future development of the Pearl River Delta region.
For a long time, the economic development on both sides of the Pearl River Estuary has been characterized by "strong in the east and weak in the west". In 2023, the total GDP of Shenzhen, Dongguan and Huizhou on the east coast will be 5,168.421 billion yuan, and the total GDP of Zhongshan, Zhuhai and Jiangmen on the west bank will be 1,210.612 billion yuan, more than four times that of the latter. Shenzhen and Zhongshan, which are basically symmetrical on both sides of the Pearl River estuary, have a tenfold GDP gap.
If we want to rewrite this pattern, strengthening cross-strait linkage is the key. As the core transportation hub project of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor is the first to solve the problem.
Song Ding said that there is a huge gap between the east and west banks of the Pearl River in terms of capital, technology, and talent. The "gap" is the driving force, which will produce a stronger depression filling effect. Over the years, Zhongshan's economic development has been relatively slow, although there are provincial capitals Guangzhou and Guangzhou-Foshan metropolitan area in the north, and Macao Special Administrative Region and the metropolitan area on the west bank of the Pearl River in the south, however, the influence and driving capacity of these two metropolitan areas on Zhongshan are very limited, and the conditions for Zhongshan's own development are weak, so the opening of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor has become a rare major opportunity for Zhongshan for many years, and has extremely important strategic significance. For other cities on the west bank of the Pearl River Delta, there will also be a good opportunity for economic and trade cooperation and development.
△ Ma'an Island in Zhongshan under construction Source: Picture Worm
Hu Gang also said that the opening of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor has strengthened the connection between the east and west banks of the Pearl River, and will gradually integrate the three cities of Zhuhai, Zhongshan and Jiangmen into the Shenzhen metropolitan area. In terms of industry, Shenzhen's high-tech industries on the east bank of the Pearl River Estuary will empower the industrial development of the west bank and upgrade the industrial form on the west bank of the Pearl River.
Look at the East Coast again. Song Ding believes that the opening of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor will also bring a sense of urgency to Shenzhen's "old partners" Dongguan and Huizhou, prompting them to reassess the value of "Linshen" and regain their close relationship with Shenzhen in the "metropolitan area".
"When the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor came, Zhongshan was also included in the Linshen City, and Zhongshan and Shenzhen showed a fiery enthusiasm in deepening cooperation. At the same time, Zhuhai is also exploring a number of strategies to actively use the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor, and Zhuhai and Shenzhen have been actively promoting the establishment and construction of the Shenzhen-Zhuhai Corridor, striving to be included in the agenda of major cross-river and sea projects in the Greater Bay Area as soon as possible. This excitement will in turn stimulate the inherent cities of Dongguan and Huizhou, which are close to Shenzhen, and further strengthen research on how to strengthen scientific and technological economic and trade cooperation with Shenzhen. Song Ding said.
It's not just about connecting the east and west sides of the Pearl River estuary. On the west side of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor, the Wanqingsha branch of the South-Central Expressway will also be opened to traffic this year, when the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor will connect three of the five major metropolitan areas in Guangdong - the Guangzhou metropolitan area, the Shenzhen metropolitan area, and the metropolitan area on the west bank of the Pearl River Estuary. The total GDP of these three metropolitan areas accounts for about 90% of the total GDP of the five major metropolitan areas in Guangdong, and the permanent population exceeds 80 million, accounting for about 75% of the total population of the five major metropolitan areas in Guangdong.
It is foreseeable that with the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor as a link, the resource elements of the Pearl River Delta will flow and integrate more rapidly, divide labor and cooperate, and achieve a jump in regional energy level. The direct "hand-in-hand" of the three metropolitan areas will also bring new opportunities for promoting the industrial interconnection and efficient allocation of various elements on both sides of the Pearl River, and for the division of labor and cooperation and convergence of urban agglomerations on both sides of the Pearl River.
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