A two-day media tour on the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area wrapped up on Sunday, focusing on Shenzhen's transformation and the Dongjiang water project.
About 30 journalists from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region participated in the tour with political and business figures to learn more about the 11-city cluster through company and museum visits, interviews and interactive activities.
The tour was organized by the Working Group on Patriotic Education, which was established by the HKSAR government in April 2024 to enhance the education on the country's culture and development as well as promoting patriotism.
During the first day in technology powerhouse Shenzhen, journalists visited an autonomous driving technology startup and a construction company specializing in modular housing.
The second day started in Dongguan in Guangdong province, a city bordering Shenzhen to the south.
Dongguan is no stranger to residents of the HKSAR, as both cities had frequent cultural, economic and people-to-people exchanges.
"In terms of businesses, enterprises from Hong Kong have established their businesses in Dongguan, and a number of residents in Hong Kong are descendants of Dongguan people. These reflect the close bonds between Dongguan and Hong Kong," an official at the Dongguan Municipal People's Government told journalists.
Known as a key manufacturing hub, Dongguan is advancing in its transformation into a technological innovation hub, attracting top-tier enterprises to set up their bases in the city, the official added.
A visit to the Dongjiang-Shenzhen Water Supply Project Memorial Park in Dongguan was considered more than timely, as 2025 marks the 60th anniversary of the project.
The project broke ground in February 1964 after a drought struck Hong Kong, which lacks its own fresh water resource, in 1963.
Launched on March 1, 1965, the project ended Hong Kong’s chronic water shortages, supplying water from Dongguan’s Dongjiang River, which originates in East China’s Jiangxi province, to Hong Kong via the Shenzhen Reservoir and through dams, pumping stations and 83 kilometers of pipelines.
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Other than the project's history and its importance for Hong Kong’s fresh water supply, the memorial park also showcased engineering feats that safeguard water quality.
Starry Lee Wai-king, convener of the working group, pointed out that the country always showed its staunch support for Hong Kong in times of difficulty, whether during water supply shortages or the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The 60th anniversary (of the water supply project) is not only an opportunity for us to cherish water resources, but also a good example of patriotic education," said Lee, also a member of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and a member of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council.
Sharing his memory as a child during the period of water rationing, Lee Luen-fai, non-official member of the working group, stressed water security was an indispensable part of the national security.
Journalists later went back to Shenzhen to visit the Nantou Ancient City Museum.
With different cultural relics and interactive displays, the museum took the Nantou Ancient City as the background to narrate Shenzhen's development and transformation, describing its historical link with Hong Kong as "same roots, same source".
Tour participants also visited on Sunday the research and development base of SmartMore, a Hong Kong unicorn company specializing in intelligent industrial products to connect with advanced production lines.
In June 2024, Hong Kong Investment Corp, the HKSAR government’s investment arm, signed its first strategic cooperation agreement with SmartMore, covering the upstream and downstream industrial chains of AI, talent training, and improving Hong Kong’s computing power level.
