Fiction: Group 2
The Pearl in my Eyes
Marymount Primary School, Lam, Annette - 10, Fiction: Group 2
y the year of 2030, will I be one of the city dwellers in the ever busiest hub – the Pearl River Delta
(PRD)? As early as 1978 when I was nowhere, the delta region was merely a humble, rural place
with meagre villages sprawling along the marshy lands, occupying less than 0.5 percent of the area of
China.
Not until 2008 when I was in my early stage of exploration, the Chinese Government unleashed an
astounding plan to merge the PRD’s nine cities – Zhuhai, Zhongshan and Jiangmen (west); Shenzhen,
Dongguan and Huizhou (east); Guangzhou, Foshan and Zhaoqing (centre) – into a mega cosmopolis
encompassing 54,733 sq.km., with an expected gigantic population of 66 million. It is an idea to create
‘one-hour-living-zone’.
I am wondering how far this region will grow or go geographically and economically. Prior to the
implementation of the Open Door Policy in 1978, population in Shenzhen was less than 1 million, in
Guangzhou was just around 1.5 million whereas in Hong Kong it was about 3.5 million. However, since
the ‘urbanization’ opera started to play, the whole PRD region has grown dramatically. In 2015, population
in Shenzhen and Guangzhou will reach up to 13 million and 13.5 million respectively while Hong Kong
also has 7.5 million. Incredibly, population in Shenzhen or Guangzhou singly has multiplied tenfold in less
than 40 years.
Can you imagine what changes, better or worse, will bring forth to the nine cities in the region?
Geographically, urbanization is the cornerstone of the PRD plan with labyrinths of roads, tunnels, bridges
across the whole PRD, plus intra-and-inter-city railways, totaling 4,000 km. Upon completion of all
these colossal, prodigious projects notably, Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Railway to be
completed in 2015; Shenzhen-Maoming Express Railway and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge to
be completed in 2016, residents of the PRD will be able to travel among the nine cities in an area size larger
than Denmark (43,094 sq.km.) or Switzerland (41,285 sq.km.) in an hour or less.
The PRD region is evolving from being the world’s low-cost factory to an increasingly innovative, high-
end manufacturing hub bringing a GDP of RMB15 trillion and a per capita GDP exceeding RMB 220,000
by 2030. Evidently, the nine cities benefit a lot from the booming of the PRD region in terms of
economical returns or geographical integration. Yet, everything is like a coin having two sides. The plan of
urbanization has always been exploiting most of the rural areas which eventually and inevitably produces a
by-product – air pollution. Reportedly, in 2013 in the PRD region, only 22.2 percent of days in October
had good air quality. All nine cities in the region had good air quality for fewer than 15 days. Ozone and
particulate matters worsened air quality in the PRD region making it the most polluted area in China.
More seriously is that nationwide, almost half of the 74 cities in the Environmental Protection Ministry
report had good air quality in fewer than 15 days in October. Even in September there was only 19 days
having good air quality.
Besides the PRD region, air pollution is as if a spider web creeping out to the Yangtze River Delta and the
Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province cluster. The PRD region is created as the ‘workshop of the world’ as
well as one of the world’s megapolis eager to attracting global talents and foreign investments, in context,
China will have to pay off for this by-product. As quoted in an article in Time magazine : “Of all the
things, China has sacrificed to economic growth – communist ideology, traditional architectures, guaranteed
employment – the erosion of the country’s environment may have the highest cost”.
According to a recent McKinsey projection, 40 percent of the 75 most dynamic cities will be Chinese by
2025 with Shanghai and Beijing being first and second. Hong Kong will be the 30
th
- what does this
ranking mean to us? In recent years, gradual changes have taken place in the PRD region - wage inflation
and workers’ awareness of their rights in negotiations plus rising costs in energy, commodity and overheads
B
