The second phase of the joint interview event themed "Leveraging New Advantages to Align with the 15th Five-Year Plan" took place in Dongguan from August 25 to 26. The delegation comprised nearly 50 representatives from 28 national, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao media outlets, as well as online influencers.
The delegation toured the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) Dongguan Logistics Park, an 80,000-square-meter site located in the Dongguan Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Zone and known as an "airport without a runway."
Ian Kwok, general manager of Aviation Logistics (Dongguan) at Airport Authority Hong Kong, said HKIA handles about 70 percent of international air cargo of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Moving the airport's cargo services upstream to Dongguan is the best way to serve that market, he said.
The model has cut logistics lead-times. Cargo can move from arrival at the park to flight departure in as little as 13 hours. Costs are about 30 percent lower than under traditional arrangements, and operational efficiency is 20 percent higher.
Kwok said the site the delegation visited is part of the park's pilot scheme, and that permanent facilities now under construction are due to begin trial operations in April 2027 and enter full-scale operations in June 2027.
(An artist's impression of the permanent facilities planned for the HKIA Dongguan Logistics Park)
All three of HKIA's cargo terminal operators now have a presence at the park, and 36 airlines accept cargo processed there. Since customs-supervised operations began on April 18, 2023, the park has handled imports and exports worth more than 80 billion yuan ($11.9 billion).
At the XbotPark Robotics Base in Songshan Lake, the delegation was drawn to the site's distinctive entrepreneurial culture.
To date, the base has incubated more than 80 hard-tech companies. Two have gone public, while several have grown into unicorns.
The path taken by Jon Chan, founder of CYC Motor, shows how Dongguan and Hong Kong can play to different strengths. CYC Motor was started by a group of cycling and technology enthusiasts and began research and development in Hong Kong before shifting production to Dongguan. It has since developed several drive systems for electric mountain bikes.
At City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan), the delegation found a university "embedded in a cluster of laboratories."
Chiu Chi Yue, vice president (administration) and chair professor at City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan), said the university's programs focus on new materials, new energy and big data. Those are precisely the fields that industrial development in Dongguan and across the Greater Bay Area needs most, he said.
The delegation also visited the China Spallation Neutron Source, the country's first and the world's fourth pulsed spallation neutron source. The facility uses neutron beams to map the internal structure of materials.
Since opening to users in 2018, the facility has run for more than 5,000 hours a year, putting it among the world's leading facilities of its kind for operating time and efficiency. More than 90 percent of its equipment is domestically produced. It has more than 11,000 registered users worldwide and has completed about 2,500 experimental projects.
Authors | Zheng Yiling (intern), Huang Qini, Wei Shen
