Hong Kong-Guangdong Reintegration and Spatial Transformation in the Post-reform Zhujiang Delta: a Case Study of DongGuan

Abstract

The implementation of China’s 'open door' policy since 1979 has significantly facilitated social and economic reintegration between Hong Kong and Guangdong Province in southern China. This study assesses the processes and consequences of Hong Kong-Guangdong integra-tion in the transformation of a local economy in the zhujiang Delta. Intensified economic ex-change between Hong Kong and Guangdong has been a recent phenomenon despite the exis-tence of their traditional linkages. The northward shifting of industrial facilities from Hong Kong to Guangdong has been motivated by the imperative of lowering labour cost, increasing the rate of return for investment, and strengthening the overall competitiveness of Hong Kong manufacture in the international market. Geographic proximity, cultural affinity, and flexible state policy are three most important factors explaining the growth and locational characteris-tics of capital inverstment from Hong Kong to Guangdong. The relocation of manufacturing ac-tivity from Hong Kong to Guangdong has not displayed a spatial tendency of high concentra-tion in large urban centers. The existence of personal kinship ties,an improved transport in-frastructure, an abundant supply of cheap labour and land space,and the lack of strict regula-tions on environmental pollution have combined to make the suburban area between Hong Kong and Guangzhou a place no less attractive than a congested large city to Hong Kong man-ufacturers. Economic reintegration between Hong Kong and the Inland has resulted in a signif-icant process c( deindustrialization and tertiarization in Hong Kong. It has quickened the pace of rural industrialization in China and facilitated a distinct urbanization process in which a great number of surplus rural labourers entered factories in the countryside without having to move into cities. The intrusion of global capitalism has also effected the culture, behaviour, and lifestyle of the Chinese people in the Inland.

自1979年以來,中國開放政策的實施顯著地加強了香港和廣東的社會經濟聯系。本研究探討中國南部區域一體化發展的過程和影響。制造業由香港向廣東的轉移并未表現向大城市中心空間集聚的傾向。親緣關系的存在,交通運輸基礎設施的改善,充裕的廉價勞動力和土地面積的供給以及在環境污染方面缺乏嚴格的控制等因素共同作用,并使香港和廣州之間的郊區對香港制造商的吸引力不亞于一個擁擠的大城市。資本的流入和制造設備的引進,加速了中國農村工業化的步伐,明顯地促進了城市化進程,使大批剩余勞動力不必涌入城市,而是進入建在農村的工廠里。跨國資本和海外資金的流入還改變了中國當地百姓的文化、行為和生活方式。