Changing lifestyles in Hengqin

The lives of those who have resided in Hengqin before the start of its new development phase have been radically changed. Prior to this, the island was scarcely populated. Now its longtime residents say that their traditional lifestyle is fading quickly.
“Life used to be more relaxed here. Now there is more traffic and more people. Things are developing quite rapidly. We are located between the mountains and our lifestyle used to be more natural. Now we see many high-rise buildings. Simple things have been lost. Concurrently, modern things have been brought here. There are gains and losses,” Mr Zhang, who grew up in a Hengqin village, told TDM. He added that the neighboring island is looking better as a result of the new projects, although social infrastructure is still lagging behind.
Mr Zhang is expecting more residents from Macau to visit and even live in Hengqin: “If they bring their purchasing power to Hengqin, the commodities prices will surely go up,” he suggested.
Another Hengqin resident, Ms Su, noted the recent housing arrangements for underprivileged residents. “Before, we lived in Chimelong [where a vast resort, visible from Coloane village, now stands]. Now you can see that we are living in flats and there are good roads and cars. There are buses nearby and people older than 50 receive a subsidy of RMB1,000.”
The island is becoming densely populated and there has been ample infrastructural growth. The Cotai border has begun operating at all hours, and a local shopper, Mr Chai, expects his grocery business to thrive. “The 24-hour border will bring more business opportunities and tourists. We can’t run a shop without potential customers, can we?”
Hengqin covers an area of 106.46 square kilometers, more than three times as large as Macau. The island is made up of one town, three communities and eleven villages.
The Hengqin New Area was officially established on December 16, 2009. In the subsequent years, it has enjoyed great economic expansion. The coastal area of Hengqin is now home to a satellite campus of the University
of Macau and several state-owned banks, including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China.
According to the general planning of Hengqin, there will be approximately 200,000 people living in Hengqin in 2020. The director-general of the Hengqin New Area Administrative Committee, Niu Jing, predicted recently that more than one-third of the population on the nearby island will be made up of Macau residents by then.