businesstraveller.com JULY/AUGUST 2019
DESTINATIONS
“Zhuhai is one of those areas that’s been underutilised- understated. It’s not really been known what its
direction would be. They’ve dabbled in every kind
of industry you could imagine, but it’s not been the
immediate sought-after focal point for any particular
industry. The GBA will change that.”
THE ORLANDO OF CHINA
A major contributor to Zhuhai’s success is likely to be
Hengqin, an island to its south that is about three times
the size of Macau. Little known outside of China, much
of the island now resembles a giant construction site, but
its strategic location right next to Macau means it can
take advantage of Macau’s lack of spare land by building
attractions to lure non-gaming tourists over the border.
Billy Chan, director, international affairs office
at Macau University of Science and Technolog y’s
faculty of medicine lives in Macau and often observes
Hengqin Island when he takes coffee on his balcony
each morning. He believes Hengqin has potential, but is
definitely still in its early stages of development.
“They have a lot of bricks and mortar and glass and
steel, and buildings standing up and half-finished,” he
says. “Hengqin is a great spot, it’s really close to Zhuhai.
I’m sure the government will give lots of incentives
[for development], but I don’t see a lot of activity yet –
besides a lot of buildings. It’s like the lights are on but
nobody’s home.”
Given time, though, Hengqin Island is likely to grow
into a major entertainment centre for southern China.
Already, those involved or observing its development are
dubbing it “the Orlando of China”.
“They have lots of empty space, very good traffic
infrastructure with the [Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau]
bridge, they have a high-speed train and their own
airport, which can be developed. Basically, there’s a
lot of infrastructure and a lot of land,” says Dr Markus
Schuckert, an assistant professor at the School of
Hotel and Tourism Management at Hong Kong
Polytechnic University.
In a May 2019 visit to the Chimelong Hengqin
Bay Hotel, Business Traveller Asia-Pacific toured the
expansive 1,000-plus room property. Eight towering
dolphin statues encircle a luminescent red anemone
statue in the lobby. At the rear of the property, in front
of the expansive swimming pool, is a smaller pool
housing real-life dolphins for guests to observe. Even on
the overcast day on which we visited, plenty of guests
were poolside, with children f loating in the pool on
inf latable swans and f lamingoes. A vast, then-empty car
park opposite the hotel was expected to be filled with
the shiny new automobiles of the Chinese middle classes
come summer.
The property is just one of the hotels in the
Chimelong International Ocean Tourist Resort, owned
by Chimelong Group, a Chinese theme-park operator
active in southern China since 1989. (The company also
has a major tourist resort in Guangzhou.)31