The Greater Bay Area (several cities in Guangdong Province in mainland China along with Hong Kong and Macau) is a major Chinese government scheme to link the entire region into an integrated economic and business hub .
The Greater Bay Area, taken as a whole, dwarfs the world's other major bay areas - Tokyo, New York and San Francisco.
The number of patent applications in China has risen steadily in recent years to overtake that of the UK and rival Japan and the US. Within China, Shenzhen stands as the leading city for patent generation, outgunning Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai.
Global GDP rankings - the GDHKMC Bay Area ranks 13th if taken as a country.