More and more young people in Hong Kong are heading northward to neighboring city Shenzhen to pursue their dreams. Many have built startups in Qianhai in the west of Shenzhen, a new economic zone for modern service industry cooperation between the two metropolises in south China.

Since the opening of the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Youth Innovation and Entrepreneur Hub (E Hub) in 2013, it has fostered over 100 youth startup teams from Hong Kong and Macao. The annual turnover of Hong Kong enterprises in Qianhai grew from 2.1 billion yuan (about 318 million US dollars) in 2012 to 43 billion yuan (about 6.5 billion US dollars) in 2016.

What is bringing Hong Kong youth to Qianhai, a small area of less than 15 square kilometers on the Chinese mainland?

"The comprehensive business environment here is just perfect for startups," said Guo Weiqiang, a startup owner from Hong Kong. 

"This is really unexpected."

The area has realized a rapid development since December 2012 when Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), visited Shenzhen soon after the 18th CPC National Congress. Xi urged Qianhai to capitalize on the advantage of its closeness to Hong Kong and intensify cooperation with the special administrative region. Accordingly, he hoped the area would serve as a link between the mainland and the world.

To achieve the goal, "innovation" is needed, said Wang Jinxia, deputy director of the Qianhai Management Bureau. 

"We have to introduce industries and promote innovation of systems and mechanisms. What matters the most is to provide our clients with high quality and high efficiency services."

Wang added that Qianhai had made great achievements by "boldly going forward" as Xi required. 

From 2012 to the end of last year, the number of companies in the area skyrocketed from 299 to 42,000, a 139-fold increase. The actual use of foreign investment grew by 238 times from 16 million US dollars in 2012 to 3.8 billion US dollars in 2016.

Today's Qianhai, with a cluster of the financial industry, modern logistics industry, information services, science and technology services and professional services, is emerging as a pioneer of China's comprehensive reform.