China aims to develop its southern Pearl River Delta region into a world-class urban cluster that would dwarf all others. Transforming it into a global shipping hub is a big part of the plan. Our reporter Ge Yunfei went to the region to find out.

China is developing its own "Bay Area"-an emerging mega-city of more than 120 million people named the Guangdong - Hong Kong - Macao Bay Area. China's Bay Area is also called the Pearl River Delta, or PRD for short. It's made up of China's two Special Administrative Regions, Hong Kong and Macao, and nine Mainland cities in Guangdong Province, including tech-hub Shenzhen, and trade center Guangzhou.

GE YUNFEI GUANGZHOU "In China's ambitious Guangdong - Hong Kong - Macau Greater Bay Area plan, building a cluster of world's first-class ports is an essential part of the plan."

And that starts with Nansha Port-located at the mouth of the Pearl River in Guangzhou. For container ships, it is the gateway to Southern China, making it a lynchpin in China's Maritime Silk Road. Workers completed the third phase of construction in 2017. The port now has 16 container berths and can serve the largest container ships on earth. The fourth phase, which kicks off this year, will make Nansha a fully unmanned automatic port. Xu Shaoyue is a freighter captain who has been sailing between the two Bay Areas - San Francisco and Guangdong- for over 30 years. Xu said efficiency might be its biggest selling point.

XU SHAOYUE FREIGHTER CAPTAIN "My ship is a 50,000-ton freighter. Here, it'll only need a worker to unload all of my goods just within one day. But in the U.S., it'll take four to five days."

Despite such efficiency, Xu admits Chinese ports still have their weaknesses.

XU SHAOYUE FREIGHTER CAPTAIN "The Chinese ports are even better and more modernized. But in professional services like piloting a ship into harbor and traffic control system, the U.S. ports will do a better job. So, the Chinese ports still need to improve their service."

That shouldn't be hard for Nansha. An established hub for global finance, China's Bay Area has the necessary manpower and the capital.

SONG XIAOMING, VICE GENERAL MANAGER GUANGZHOU PORT COMPANY LTD. "Hong Kong has high-end financial services and we on the mainland have huge growth potential. With closer collaboration, we can bargain for more leverage, when negotiating international shipment terms, to have more say in the global value chain."

Right now, Guangzhou is applying to the central government for building a free trade harbor.