Abstract: To enhance the transport linkage of Hong Kong with the Inland and to accelerate the economic development of the areas along the Beijing Kowloon Railway, these are two aspects of the major purpose of the construction of the rail artery. Hong Kong as a Special Administration Region since the middle of 1997, will remain her status of a world city in the global urban network, continuing the development of her urban functions. The Beijing Kowloon Railway with its feeders links the Capital and the major economic centres of the country, stretching deeply to the hinterlands. The Railway, having a powerful transport capacity, greatly extends the direct communications between Hong Kong and many places in the middle and east parts of the country. That further increases the capacity of the economic development of the city. The majority of the areas along the Railway, which were hard to get to in the past, are rich with abundant natural resources, but are backward in economic development (except the areas of Zhujiang River Delta and Beijing Tianjin region at the two ends and Nanchang Jiujiang region at the middle). The new rail artery has created a favorable condition for the development of the areas. Hong Kong, serving as an unique base for developing foreign trades and drawing funds for the Inland, could make direct stronger impacts on the areas with the help of the Railway. The major efforts have been made in the paper for searching the possibilities for attracting the investments from Hong Kong to the areas and for increasing the economic linkages and cooperations between the enterprises from both sides. For that purpose, the characters and the functions of Hong Kong, its needs for the further economic growth and the possibilities of involving the economic activities in the areas along the new railway by the enterprises from Hong Kong, the noted natural resources and the environments for the capital investment in the areas have been introduced, and the possibilities of the effective absorbing the investment from Hong Kong by the enterprises in the areas have been probed too. At the last, the directions and the ways for their economic cooperations and other linkages for both sides have been pointed out.

Key words: Hong Kong, Beijing—Kowloon Railway, regional development