Book excerpt: China’s Greater Bay Area (GBA) – previously referred to as the Pearl River Delta – is one of the world’s largest mega-city regions and China’s foremost technological, economic, social and cultural node. Patchell integrates agglomeration concepts with the GBA’s distinctive features to explain the region’s rise, innovativeness, and resilience. He reveals how the GBA works as differentiated and interdependent systems, providing a window into the GBA and China, while also providing the basis for a comparative approach to mega-cities and mega-regions. Key topics discussed in the book include: The early development of the GBA, its mix of indigenous and exogenous investments and expertise and the forces that compelled its upgrading from process manufacturing The regional strengths in clusters, transportation networks and regional innovation system The role of multi-level governance in balancing national directives, municipal autonomy and regional complementarities Consequences of the GBA’s agglomeration for land allocation, planning, social structure and mobility, communities, sustainable development and resilience for the future Written in an accessible yet rigorous manner, this textbook is ideal for a course on this important region, for comparative courses on agglomeration and large-scale urban development and for people wanting a greater understanding of urban processes and China.