Photo taken on Aug. 26, 2020 shows trucks at the Liantang Port/Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point at the Hong Kong-Shenzhen boundary in south China. With a new checkpoint linking Shenzhen opening on Wednesday, Hong Kong will be able to tap more opportunities in the enormous markets of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The Liantang Port/Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point started opening to cargo trucks Wednesday. (Xinhua/Mao Siqian)

With the Liantang Port/Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point at the Shenzhen-Hong Kong boundary opening on Wednesday, the two cities will be able to tap more opportunities available in the enormous markets of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

The new control point started operations at 4 p.m. on Wednesday and only cargo trucks are currently being allowed through. It is the seventh land gateway between Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

The timing of the opening was designed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

Aerial photo taken on Aug. 24, 2020 shows the Liantang Port/Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point at the Hong Kong-Shenzhen boundary in south China. With a new checkpoint linking Shenzhen opening on Wednesday, Hong Kong will be able to tap more opportunities in the enormous markets of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The Liantang Port/Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point started opening to cargo trucks Wednesday. (Xinhua/Mao Siqian)

It is the first large-scale cross-border infrastructure that has come into service since the ambitious national plan for developing the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area was initiated. 

"Infrastructure interconnection is an important part of promoting the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, embodying institutional advantages and great vitality of 'one country, two systems'," noted Ma Xingrui, Guangdong provincial governor declared at the opening ceremony.

Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) also attended the ceremony.

She said that the opening of the Liantang Port/Heung Yuen Wai Control Point marked a milestone in cooperation between the two cities, as the new facility will further ease the flow of goods across the border.

The opening of this control point represented another major step towards achieving the "one-hour living circle" plan within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, added Lam.

It is reported that after the control point is opened to travelers and private cars in the future, the facility has the capacity to handle daily traffic of 30,000 passengers and 17,850 vehicles, including 15,000 trucks, 2,000 cars and 850 buses. The passenger areas will offer 5G technology for commuters' convenience.