GBA Visit 2026

The Master of Cities and Governance (MCG) programme at Lingnan University’s School of Graduate Studies (GS) recently led students on a three-day, two‑night study tour to the Greater Bay Area, bringing the classroom into the city and gaining deeper insight into the diverse dimensions of urban governance.

The study tour connected creativity, infrastructure, and cutting-edge technology. Students visited arts community and village to experience how cultural industries and contemporary creativity come together to co-create local vitality. At a digital innovation experience centre, they explored how 5G drives innovative applications and urban management, linking digital infrastructure with smart governance. In addition, by examining green energy and future city planning, students reflected on how technological progress is reshaping everyday life and urban development.

Creative City: Guanlan Printmaking Village and Dafen Oil Painting Village — understanding the creative ecology and industry chain, experiencing how cultural industries and contemporary creativity come together to co-create local vitality.
Smart City: China Unicom Exhibition Hall in Shenzhen and Shenzhen Energy Environmental’s Longgang Energy Ecological Park (Shenzhen East Waste-to-Energy Plant)— exploring how 5G drives innovative applications and urban management, and the governance logic of green energy and circular economy through the lens of urban infrastructure.
Future City: Longhua Future City Exhibition Hall and the World's first robot 6S Store — offering an overview of urban planning and smart-city development. Students appreciated humanoid robots’ dance and martial arts performances, listened to piano robots performing a four-hand duet, and observed a coffee robot preparing latte art coffee, experiencing how technology is empowering everyday life.

Along the way, students made “urban governance” tangible through observation, documentation, and reflection.

When Art Meets the City: Creative Vitality in the Greater Bay Area Field Trip

What impressed us most during the Greater Bay Area field trip was our visit to Guanlan Print Village and Dafen Oil Painting Village. In Guanlan Print Village, we had the opportunity to closely observe part of the printmaking process for the first time, which gave us a more direct understanding of the craftsmanship and cultural meaning behind traditional art. The village itself preserved a strong historical and artistic atmosphere. Its quiet environment, distinctive architecture, and creative spaces made us feel that traditional culture is not something distant from modern life, but something that can still be preserved, appreciated, and revitalized today. Through this visit, we not only admired the artworks, but also better understood the process of cultural inheritance behind them.

When AI Reshapes the City, When Technology Is Within Reach

Stepping into the Shenzhen Unicom Exhibition Hall, I was immediately struck by the sheer technological sophistication. The exhibition hall was divided into a front hall and a back hall. The front hall showcased Unicom's product capabilities and innovative 5G applications, while the back hall displayed a wealth of industry 5G application cases. We also experienced interactive projects such as a VR ski simulator and a driving simulator.
During the visit, I deeply realized that technology is reshaping the way cities are governed. Unicom, driven by a dual approach of “perception + AI,” integrates high-tech technologies such as video surveillance and IoT sensing to build a smart city hub, transforming urban management from manual inspection to real-time transmission. Watching the data flashing across the screens and the constantly changing urban information, I couldn't help but think—the city of the future will be a perceptible, thinking, intelligent entity. This visit not only broadened my horizons but also filled me with anticipation for the deep integration of AI technology and urban governance.