China's southern city of Guangzhou is at the heart of plans to link a cluster of cities in the Pearl River Delta, including Hong Kong and Macau, into a Greater Bay Area rivalling Silicon Valley and Greater Tokyo as an economic hub by 2035.
Sprawling over 56,000 sq km (21,600 sq miles) with a population of more than 70 million, the Greater Bay Area is the centrepiece of a drive by China's ruling Communist Party to establish a hub of advanced manufacturing and technology.
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As rising labour costs and competition across Asia chip away at south China's manufacturing advantage, the ruling Communist Party hopes its drive for more advanced production and research will push the Greater Bay Area towards new wealth.
The area has a combined gross domestic product of about $1.5trillion, roughly equivalent to that of Australia or South Korea.
Photo editing by Gabrielle Fonseca Johnson; Editing by Clarence Fernandez; Layout by Julia Dalrymple