A tale of two cities: Shenzhen, HKSAR form close bond
Yu Fan, who works in Shenzhen, South China’s Guangdong Province, has never felt that he and his wife were in a “long- distance relationship,” even though his wife, a resident of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ( HKSAR), worked across the border in the HKSAR.
“Thanks to the opening of the GuangzhouShenzhen- Hong Kong Express Rail Link, it takes only about 20 minutes to travel from Shenzhen to downtown Hong Kong, and my wife and I can easily see each other on weekdays. My friend joked that it takes longer
to meet up across different districts in Beijing than our ‘ long- distance relationship’,” Yu said.
“We seemingly live in the same social circle thanks to increasingly convenient transport facilities in the Greater Bay Area,” said Yu’s wife, surnamed Ting.
The story of Yu and Ting is also the tale of Shenzhen and Hong Kong over the past 25 years since Hong Kong’s return to the motherland. Over the past quarter- century, Shenzhen and Hong Kong have worked closely to create their own “tale of two cities.”
Thanks to the ever closer links between Shenzhen and the HKSAR in terms of economic development and infrastructure, many like Yu and Ting can fully take advantage of what the two cities have to offer on daily basis.
“Since Hong Kong’s return to China, the practice of ‘ one country, two systems’ has also yielded notable results. The cooperation between Shenzhen and Hong Kong is a hand in glove partnership, to be interdependent and mutually accomplished. In the future, more vivid stories of the twin cities will be played out here,” said Li Xiaobing, an expert on Hong Kong affairs from Nankai University.
According to a KPMG employment trends research report in April, 72 percent of Hong Kong respondents showed willingness to move to cities in the Greater Bay Area in 2022.