The number of daily intercity commuters between Guangzhou, Foshan, Shenzhen and Dongguan has now exceeded 1 million people, according to the 2025 Guangzhou Transport Development Annual Report published on 29 May. 

The paper noted that the population of intercity commuters travelling between Guangzhou and the rest of the Greater Bay Area (GBA), as well as the city of Qingyuan, has significantly increased since  the 14th Five-Year Plan period (between 2021 and 2025), when it reached roughly 634,000.

Similarly, traffic between Guangzhou and Qingyuan has been growing, as the two cities’ daily passenger flow grew from around 213,000 to approximately 257,000 between 2021 and 2025, a rise of 20.7 percent.  

The significant growth in travel across the GBA in recent years has been underpinned by infrastructural development in the region, including the opening of multiple intercity railroad lines. For instance, the intercity railway network operated by Guangzhou Metro grew by an additional 100 kilometres between 2021 and 2025, from 57 kilometres to 157 kilometres. 

Meanwhile, four intercity railway systems  – running between Guangzhou-Foshan, Guangzhou-Huizhou, Guangzhou-Zhaoqing and Guangzhou-Huizhou  – were successfully linked in 2024, connecting five cities via a 258-kilometre railway line. 

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Using this system, passengers can travel from Guangzhou to central Foshan and central Dongguan in 30 minutes, and from Guangzhou to downtown Zhaoqing and Huizhou in 60 minutes. 

The growing connectivity between Guangzhou and the eight other mainland GBA metropolises is also reflected in the number of daily trips made across the cities, with the total hitting an average of 3.34 million, an increase of 13.8 percent during the 14th five-year plan period. 

Likewise, daily journeys made between Guangzhou and 20 cities within Guangdong grew from 3.3 million to 3.84 million during the period between 2021 and 2025, up 16.2 percent. 

Further evidence of the strong flow of people can be seen in the so-called Golden Inner Bay – an area that covers the six cities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai , Foshan, Dongguan and Zhongshan. 

According to the report, the number of cross-river routes in the Golden Inner Bay increased from 5 to 7 during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, with the newly added connections being the Guangzhou-Huizhou intercity rail and Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link. Over this period, the cross-river passenger flow jumped by 70 percent, from 617,000 to 1.04 million.