A New Bay area for a new generation of dreamers

Where do you picture your dream job? With Google at Silicon Valley? Designing cars and robots with Honda at Minato Tokyo? Or striking it big in the fast finance of downtown Manhattan?

All these dreamy locales share one common feature. They are all located in bay areas, which combine the natural geographic advantages of harbours, access to the sea, and fresh water to draw a vibrant trading community with access to a large thriving workforce.

But as the Wayne Gretzky cliché goes: “Skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.” In Southern China, there has been a new wind blowing with the Greater Bay Area development plan. Combining innovation, the industrial strength of the world’s factory, and the financial infrastructure in the Pearl River Delta region; Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and their neighbouring cities are plotting to rise and challenge other world-class bay areas (such as Tokyo, New York, and San Francisco) in innovation, finance, logistics and more.

^{Experiencing the largest curved screen 5d cinema in the world}

Seizing this opportunity, the IMechE NEAR (North East Asia Region) & HKB-YMS (Hong Kong Branch Young Members Section) organised a two-day trip to Zhuhai promoting regional opportunities to our young and upcoming members.

^{A bi-lateral technical sharing by the Hengqin District cooling operator} 

Over the Easter break, our delegation of 25 young members visited some of the great engineering marvels in the region:

• HongKong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge - the longest sea crossing ever built on earth.
• Yinlong new energy - third largest EV bus manufacturer in China / R&D for advanced battery chemistry
• Hengqin Energy Dev. Co.- city scale district cooling operator for Hengqin Island, and
• Chimelong Ocean Kingdom - holder of five Guinness World Records, largest aquarium and largest aquarium window. Home to world class climate control and amusement ride mechanical systems.

^{Delegates take a tour around the Yinlong manufacturing plant on one of its EV Buses}

Acting as a bridge in the region, the IMechE strives to connect engineers with their peers and foster a professional engineering community to grasp these exciting new developments. As part of an on-going initiative to expand and reach out to our neighbours, the Institution will continue to host and organise events in the Greater China area.

^{Peeking behind the scenes to see the Dual disk break clutch connected motor driving the amusement rides} 

When the settlers left for America, they didn't look for familiarity, comfort, or civilisation; those could be found in the old world they left behind. They asked of the wilderness only for opportunity, and a chance to create anew, free of the shackles of the past.

In our increasingly pessimistic and stratified world, perhaps dreams are what the next generation needs the most.