Translation
BRIEF ON PROPOSED LINGDING SEA BRIDGE
The proposed Lingding Sea Bridge is a very large scale project that straddles China and Hong Kong. It is technically complicated and has wide-ranging implications. It has to obtain approval from the Chinese Government, and discussion with the Hong Kong Government is required. The following brief is made to facilitate understanding :
1.
The significance of the project
This cross-estuary project, the largest ever planned in
in China, will be beneficial not only to the development of Zhuhai, Western Pearl River Delta and West Guangdong, but also to improving the communication link between Hong Kong and Macau, as well as between Hong Kong and the Mainland, thus conducive to the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong and Macau.
(i)
(ii)
to
go
The project will reduce traffic pressure between Guangdong and Hong Kong and improve Hong Kong's internal traffic situation. Presently, all road transportation from Hong Kong to the Mainland has through Shenzhen, which is not a very satisfactory scenario given the rapid increase in traffic volume between the two places. According to statistics, the traffic flow passing through Shenzhen was 10000 vehicles/day in 1989, which was increased to 20000 vehicles/day in 1992
the figure has doubled in three years. The result is heavy workload for the Shenzhen check points and saturated road traffic in the main north-south transportation routes between Shenzhen and Kowloon. If traffic congestion were to deteriorate, development of the transportation industry and the economies at large
large in China and Hong Kong will inevitably be undermined. This project will open completely new transportation route for Hong Kong which will not only reduce traffic pressure between China and Hong Kong, but will also improve Hong Kong's strained and not-very-well-aligned internal highway network.
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The project is beneficial to
is beneficial to the improvement and strengthening of communications and economic ties between Hong Kong and western Pearl River Delta Region and Macau. On the one hand, Hong Kong, one of the "four small dragons" in Asia that enjoy rapid economic growth, has in recent years seen a continuous northward movement of capital, technical know-how and business establishments to Mainland China. On the other hand, western Pearl River Delta Region is a place with many townships which