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Tiger, thank you very much! Excellent information. Gave me a nice overview of the city.
As far as commuting is concerned the site will be in Hengqin. With that in mind would there be a particular area you would recommend staying while I am there? I want to be in an interesting area, but also want to make sure I am not traveling longer than I would like every morning and afternoon.
I am not sure the exact section of Hengqin, but I assume it it set up similarly to the economic zones in the UAE. Would that be accurate?
Hengqin is a rather large island, which is sparsely habitated, but ground zero for major development. They are building everything out there, including theme parks, water parks, etc. It's kind of going to be the 'Orlando' of the area. Macau for casinos, Hengqin for everything else that needs a lot of land to build it on.
That being said, it's a big island, and most likely you'd be in the area closest to Zhuhai. I don't know what all is on Hengqin right now, but there is a bridge that connects it to Macau (that is a separate entry way than the main busy route that most people take between the two cities further north).
There is also a new university on Hengjin Island, which has been given jurisdiction to Macau. Meaning, you cannot access it from mainland China, as it has its own tunnel connecting directly to the rest of Macau. You might end up near there, but unable to access the campus from that side. But, in 30 years or whatever it is, the walls/immigration and such will go down between Macau and Mainland China, and Hengjin is developing rapidly and quickly to prime itself for some good financial runoff from that future.
...and thats basically the bulk of what I know on Hengjin! I don't know much of it from the Zhuhai perspective.
Sorry edward I really have next to no experience in Zhuhai. Just have passed through it twice (without stopping).
I do have a friend who lives there...if you have a few specific questions I can pass them on to him. He's a small entrepreneur and spends a lot of time in the US and Canada, but chose to move to Zhuhai to base his operations there, apparently with incentives from the govt.
I know it's been just four months, but you notice any visual progress, Tiger?
I read that the government announced they are delayed about 2.5 years...wondering if that means 2017-2018 for the first line to be operational?
I can't say about the delays.
But, VISUALLY, it keeps changing. They are definitely still actively building....for sure! But, it's mostly pillars and such going up everywhere. I haven't seen track being laid down, or anything like that yet.
That being said, much of Taipa seems to be under construction with various large casinos going up as well. Come to think of it, I only see work being done in Taipa.
Last edited by Tiger Beer; 04-19-2015 at 11:15 PM..
Thanks as always!! It's looking like we won't be back in Macau again until Summer of 2016 at the earliest.
I also just read up on a few things, to match with what I'm seeing.
It LOOKS like plenty of delays all around. Basically, there have been a lot of construction workers all over Taipa island this year. For geography purposes, Taipa is where most of the large new casinos have been built, and are continuing to be built. The rail stations and pillars have been going up everywhere as well. That being said, I have ONLY seen them going up in Taipa.
Reading other sources, Macau Island (Macau is made up of both Macau Island and Taipa Island)...but the Macau Island side, also has a lot of rail plans, but I have seen NOTHING going up there yet. Nothing nothing nothing. It is also where the bulk of the population and people who live day-to-day live. Whereas Taipa has that too, but Taipa is more casinos and such. So, it looks the priority is for the tourists.
That being said, I've heard a lot of locals complain that the light rail is more designed for the conveniences of tourists, and little input into what is good for just locals living in Macau, and their needs. I would have to agree with this assessment, as the casinos are mostly tourist-centric, and most would just avoid altogether.
According to some of the other stuff I was reading, many of the large casinos that are being built everywhere, are also having delays. It looks like those will eventually come along though. Should be interesting how different the layout will be once they are here. Bus routes seem to change quite quickly in Macau to accommodate new construction.
However, with NOTHING lightrail-wise even being started on the Macau Island side, I wonder if that could just be changed altogether, whereas it seems on the Taipa Island side, they are quite committed already, as so much has already been started.
Another interesting thing that I read, that I didn't know about, was that one source mentioned that the lightrail would also go over the bridge to connect to Hong Kong? They are building a bridge here to HK, but I didn't know that lightrail might be going over that as well? I just assumed it would be buses. I dont know if I read that source right though. It seems strange to me that you could just ideally just jump on the lightrail and end up in HK from it. I can't quite fathom that, or how you'd build a bridge to accomodate that plus buses and other traffic, being that engineering, just the bridge itself seems to be a logistically amazing. I mean, they are basically going above ground and under ground in different spots, and with typhoons here, and a very wide 'bit of ocean' basically to go between the two, it just seems a little crazy.
Another interesting thing that I read, that I didn't know about, was that one source mentioned that the lightrail would also go over the bridge to connect to Hong Kong? They are building a bridge here to HK, but I didn't know that lightrail might be going over that as well? I just assumed it would be buses. I dont know if I read that source right though. It seems strange to me that you could just ideally just jump on the lightrail and end up in HK from it. I can't quite fathom that, or how you'd build a bridge to accomodate that plus buses and other traffic, being that engineering, just the bridge itself seems to be a logistically amazing. I mean, they are basically going above ground and under ground in different spots, and with typhoons here, and a very wide 'bit of ocean' basically to go between the two, it just seems a little crazy.
I didn't do much research in this project but I believe that 50km (length of the bridge) would be impossible for low speed urban light rail to travel on. Even if there's a train system it'd have to be using high speed express train, moreover I've never heard about any news from the MTR of a new cross-boundary system.
I didn't do much research in this project but I believe that 50km (length of the bridge) would be impossible for low speed urban light rail to travel on. Even if there's a train system it'd have to be using high speed express train, moreover I've never heard about any news from the MTR of a new cross-boundary system.
At the bottom, there is a future line called the "Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge Line." I'm probably misinterpreting it though. It MIGHT be just a short line going to the base of the bridge to the ferry terminal. I am not sure WHY they would do that though.
It seems strange to have a line that ONLY does that, but it seems even more unlikely they could logically build light-rail all the way across to HK as well.
I didn't do much research in this project but I believe that 50km (length of the bridge) would be impossible for low speed urban light rail to travel on. Even if there's a train system it'd have to be using high speed express train, moreover I've never heard about any news from the MTR of a new cross-boundary system.
Well, it seems light rail means many different things in different regions. In the states, professionals would never categorize monorail or people movers as light rail. But that's what this Macau light rail is. And same in Singapore...their monorail extensions are classified as light rail as well.
So, I wouldn't be shocked if the bridge train (if it is real) were something else entirely. But you're right, Western "light rail" and especially this Macau "light rail" would be ridiculous to build across this bridge.
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