College students and young entrepreneurs from the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions (SAR) are optimistic about the business opportunities the Chinese mainland has to offer, according to the participants of an exchange activity between them held in Beijing on Tuesday.  

During the event, young entrepreneurs from the Hong Kong and Macao SARs shared their experiences of starting businesses in China's mainland to college students from the same regions participating in the 2019 "Challenge Cup", a national contest of extracurricular science and technology work for all undergraduate students across China. 

They also visited some high-tech startups at Zhongguancun Entrepreneurship Street, Beijing's innovation hub, where they experienced some of the most cutting-edge tech gadgets and learnt about the supportive policies and procedures about starting businesses in the Chinese mainland.

"I have always been thinking about starting a company in the (Chinese) mainland, as Macao now is part of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and enjoys geographical advantages," said Liu Zhizu, a student from Macao Technology University.

Cao Zhaoyu, founder of a self-service storage company based in Beijing, said he has lived in the Chinese mainland for 11 years and been to 33 cities. 

"I have seen dramatic changes in every city I've been to… every citizen in our country is thinking about how to get better and make improvements, and that's what touched me particularly," he said 

In recent years, China has been optimizing its environment for innovation and entrepreneurship, and introduced a series of measures to facilitate Hong Kong and Macao compatriots to start businesses in the Chinese mainland. 

The "Challenge Cup" contest, held every other year since 1989, has been hailed as the Olympic Games of technological innovation for Chinese college students. Among the winners over the past 30 years, there have been two academicians, six national key laboratory leaders, and more than 20 professors and doctoral tutors.

This year, 447 works from 213 universities across the country participated in the contest.