1. A new policy allowing yachts to travel between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao was unveiled in mid-October, extending Greater Bay Area connections into recreational boating. Nansha Marina and Henry Fok Ying Tung Group Co. Ltd. have helped implement the arrangement, marking a fresh milestone for the Guangzhou district that Hong Kong tycoon Henry Fok Ying-tung envisioned as a gateway connecting China with the world. [para. 1][para. 2]
2. Benjamin Fok Chun-yue, Henry Fok's son, sees Nansha's transformation as the culmination of an undertaking that began more than 40 years ago, when the area had no paved roads or tall buildings and was barely identifiable on a map. Today, it is an important shipping, transportation and technology hub in the Greater Bay Area, telling a story about Hong Kong wealth and China's economic rise. Benjamin Fok regards the project as the work of several generations, as he reflected during a business and philanthropy forum in Singapore in November. [para. 3][para. 4]
3. Henry Fok, a self-made industrialist, placed character and physical health at the core of his outlook. He often told his children that a healthy body meant a healthy mind, and he valued sport above all. His succession approach combined freedom with firm boundaries: the three sons of his first marriage controlled core family businesses, while the seven sons of his second and third marriages were instructed to pursue professions such as medicine and law. Benjamin Fok described his father as nurturing rather than controlling, saying Henry Fok wanted his children to choose their own paths and persevere. [para. 5][para. 6][para. 7][para. 8][para. 9][para. 10]
4. Benjamin Fok's education took an unconventional route for wealthy Hong Kong families in the 1970s and 1980s. He attended a military-style boarding school in Britain at 13, then studied mathematics and computer science at the University of British Columbia and UC Berkeley. He chose mathematics partly to compete without the language disadvantage he faced against native English speakers, and because he wondered why Western countries were technologically stronger than China. In 1973, the year after Richard Nixon's visit to China, he accompanied his father's property delegation on a two-week journey through Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Zhongshan, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Wuhan and Beijing. [para. 10][para. 11][para. 12][para. 13][para. 14]
5. After finishing his overseas education in 1977, Benjamin Fok took on Nansha's exploration while his brothers handled external relations and commercial operations. Nansha lies at Guangzhou's southern edge on the western bank of the Humen waterway at the Pearl River's mouth, placing it at the geographical center of the Greater Bay Area. Henry Fok initially wanted to build a port there, drawn by its sheltered stopping point on the Hong Kong–Guangzhou shipping route. Benjamin Fok later proposed the technology and innovation center. In the 1990s, he visited Singapore's then-prime minister Goh Chok Tong to learn from the city-state's development experience. [para. 15][para. 16][para. 17][para. 18][para. 19][para. 20][para. 21]
6. To connect Nansha with Hong Kong practically, Benjamin Fok proposed flat-bottomed aluminum catamarans powered by 10,000-horsepower diesel engines, which allowed the hulls to rise while underway and reduced resistance. The high-speed vessels cut the journey to one hour and 15 minutes, remained in service for more than 20 years, and later served as a reference in developing maritime defense vessels. Around 1995–1996, Benjamin Fok approached Microsoft's Bill Gates with a plan to train 5,000 to 10,000 software developers in Nansha, but the discussions came to nothing. He then invited computer science professor Roland Chin Tai-hong from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology to Nansha, and the push eventually developed into the Nansha Information Technology Park, advancing early technology parks in Guangzhou and the Greater Bay Area. [para. 22][para. 23][para. 24][para. 25][para. 26][para. 27]
7. The Fok family's approach differed from many Hong Kong tycoons who favored property, gambling and licensed businesses for quick returns. In 1992, Henry Fok obtained development rights over 22 square kilometers of mudflats in eastern Nansha, known as "Little Nansha," more than twice the size of the 1993 Economic and Technological Development Zone. He insisted on building hotels, shopping centers, schools and roads before housing construction, aiming for a mature high-end city rather than rapid monetization. Today, Nansha has an extensive transport network and the technology park has taken root. Benjamin Fok said his father's original intention was never commercial profit but something of lasting value for the country—a wish he believes has been realized. [para. 28][para. 29][para. 30][para. 31][para. 32][para. 33][para. 34]
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