Zhuhai, China

Zhuhai, China: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Zhuhai is a city situated on the west bank of the Pearl River estuary in southern Guangdong province, China, bordering Macau to the southeast and connected by bridge to Hong Kong. Positioned where the Pearl River meets the South China Sea, the city forms part of the broader Pearl River Delta coastal zone, a region with significant submarine cable activity. One submarine cable currently lands at Zhuhai, linking it into the regional undersea network of southern China.

The single cable landing at Zhuhai, the Hainan to Hong Kong Express (H2HE), connects points within China, making this a domestically oriented landing point rather than an international gateway. The route establishes a direct undersea link between Zhuhai and other Chinese territories along the southern coastline, serving intra-national connectivity in this part of the South China Sea.

Cables Landing at Zhuhai

The Hainan to Hong Kong Express (H2HE) is a 675-kilometre submarine cable with a ready-for-service date of 2021, noted as a draft system at that stage. The cable connects landing points within China, with Zhuhai serving as one of its termini. As the cable name indicates, the system links Hainan Island and Hong Kong, with Zhuhai included as an additional landing point along this southern Chinese coastal corridor. No capacity or fiber pair specifications are available for this system.

Regional Context

Within China's submarine cable landing point network, Zhuhai sits at the lower end of the scale in terms of cable count. Landing points such as Chung Hom Kok and Tseung Kwan O host six and five cables respectively, while Chongming, Nanhui, Shantou, and Lantau Island each serve multiple cables. With a single cable landing, Zhuhai is among the more modestly connected points in the national submarine cable footprint.

Network Role

Zhuhai functions as a single-cable terminus in the regional submarine cable graph, its connection confined to the domestic H2HE system running along China's southern coast. The landing point contributes to intra-China undersea capacity between the Pearl River Delta region, Hainan Island, and Hong Kong, supporting a corridor that runs through some of the more economically active coastal zones of southern China.

As a one-cable landing point, Zhuhai does not currently operate as a multi-cable hub, but its position on the Pearl River estuary places it within a dense coastal geography where several other Chinese landing points are active. Its presence in the H2HE system reflects the extension of domestic submarine cable infrastructure into the western shore of the Pearl River Delta.