According to local statistics, Zhuhai drew 28 scientific and technological companies that year. This attracted a combined investment worth 600 million yuan in the field of sciences and technologies. Zhuhai also received more than 1,000 letters of intent to work in the city — more than 500 were from overseas.

Many enterprises, such as software giant Kingsoft and Gree Electric Appliances, a Fortune Global 500 company, began to burgeon in Zhuhai.

Guo Yonghang, Party secretary of Zhuhai, said the city, as one of China's earliest special economic zones, persisted in prosperity driven by manufacturing and technologies.

It has formed an industrial system involving sectors including marine and aviation industries as well as smart manufacturing, Guo added.

The city is working on emerging industrial clusters, such as integrated circuit, biological medicine, new materials, new energy and high-end printing equipment.

Leveraging its unique geographical position of neighboring Hong Kong and Macao and being the only city on the mainland with land links to both special administrative regions, Zhuhai has forged extensive cooperative ties with overseas partners.

It held the China-Israel Investment Summit in 2017 and 2018 and the China-Latin America and the Caribbean International Exposition in 2017 to set up opening-up and co-operative platforms.

In 1980, Zhuhai's value of imports and exports was only $19 million. The amount in 2019 reached $41.07 billion. By the end of 2019, 20,248 foreign-funded enterprises were operating in Zhuhai, official statistics indicate.

The ecological environment was also a highlight for Zhuhai's development. Among its trailblazing measures, the SEZ launched eight bans to protect the environment in 1992. One was that projects with big chimneys or heavy pollution potential were prohibited.

As it gained local legislative power in May 1998, the city approved its first legislative rule — one focused on environmental protection — in that month. In the same year, it was granted honors by the State as one of the nation's first environmental protection model cities.

In reports released by the Center for City and Competitiveness at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences between 2014-19, Zhuhai ranked first among Chinese cities for six consecutive years in terms of its livability.

Chen Hongyu, a professor from the provincial Party school of Guangdong, said Zhuhai's high-quality development boasts its own characteristics.

Its unique, environmentally friendly development is worthy of even more praise, Chen said. He added that the city valued the natural environment when it became a SEZ and persisted in the following decades.

"Zhuhai has developed a sustainable growth model based on good ecology, which helped it attract diverse investment and professionals," Chen said.