Zhuhai is famous for being one of the four original Special Economic Zones, created by Den Xiaoping in 1980. It has grown strongly in terms of GDP and population since then, but has been overshadowed in terms of growth and wealth by the corresponding Special Economic Zone on the other side of the Pearl River, Shenzhen. This has become six times larger than Zhuhai, with rents and property prices roughly double its smaller twin. Its workers however have not become richer than Zhuhai, whose GDP per capita is amongst the top five cities in China. 

Our analysis is that Shenzhen's advantage comes principally from its better transport links to Hong Kong. This is not surprising given that they share a land border. However, the 50 km-long Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge is about to change that and irrevocably bind Zhuhai into a Hong Kong-Shenzhen-Macau-Zhuhai metropolis, of more than twenty million people, a city which rivals Beijing and Shanghai in size and exceeds them in wealth. Although there are a large number of infrastructure projects which benefit Zhuhai, not least the development of Gaolan Port to the east, and various rail and major roads that are currently under construction, the bridge to Hong Kong will have the largest impact of all on its economy.

Zhuhai also benefits from its proximity and multiple border crossings with Macau, whose economy has been growing at an annual rate of around 14% since 2004 a pace even brisker than that of the mainland! Macau is an extremely wealthy economy, with demand for property spilling into Zhuhai. However, Macau is small compared to Hong Kong - about a twelfth of the size, in terms of population, a third of the size of Zhuhai, itself a small city, by China standards.

Zhuhai has some attributes that are almost impossible for the more industrialised Shenzhen to acquire. One is a large amount of green space, a carefully planned centre, a clean and attractive beach as well as 190 islands included within the municipal boundary, mostly uninhabited. The present layout of Zhuhai owes a lot to the first mayor, Liang Guangda, who wanted, back in 1992, to build a bridge across the delta to Hong Kong. This will be the longest, and the most expensive in the world, with the cost expected to be 70 billion RMB.

Zhuhai's industrial strategy is to focus on clean, advanced manufacturing.  The sectors targeted are electronic information, home electrical appliances, power and energy technology, biomedicine and medical devices, petrochemical products, precision equipment. The town is a major manufacturing centre for printer consumables and yacht making. Marine engineering, general shipbuilding and aircraft manufacturing are also important. As befit a city with many high-technology industries, it has ten university campuses, housing around 100,000 students.