LI ZIQIANG is often seen running to a car waiting at the entrance of the residential estate where he lives in Dongguan with a load of bread in his mouth on workday mornings.

    “You cannot be late by even one minute, or everybody in the car will be late for work,” said Li, who works for a well-known company in Shenzhen.

    Li and his three other colleagues, who also live in Dongguan, share a car to work and take turns driving every week. Their carpooling WeChat group will buzz continuously if anyone is a bit off schedule.

    Li lives in a large residential complex in Fenggang, Dongguan. Although the direct distance between his home and his company is only 10 kilometers, Li usually spends at least one and a half hours commuting during the morning and evening rush hours every workday.

    Li bought his 130-square-meter apartment in Fenggang at the end of 2013. He is one of many people who are living a life between two cities. They carpool to work in Shenzhen in the morning and return to their homes in Dongguan in the evening.

    After an expressway connecting the two cities stopped charging tolls in 2015, an increasing number of people working in Shenzhen quit renting apartments in Shenzhen to purchase cheaper homes in Dongguan.

    Li paid 9,000 yuan (US$1,307) per square meter for the apartment in 2013 and now the price in Fenggang is around 25,000 yuan per square meter.

    It was reported that areas neighboring Shenzhen like Fenggang, Tangxia and Zhangmutou have been hot choices for people who work in Shenzhen. But now even the farthest Dongguan townships, such as Daojiao, Shatian and Hongmei, are becoming popular among Shenzhen employees.

    Half of Li’s colleagues in the same office have bought apartments in Dongguan. Compared to others who have purchased homes in farther areas, like Changping, Li lives in Fenggang, a Dongguan township that neighbors Shenzhen.

    Great demand for apartments in Dongguan has also pushed up the housing prices there in recent years. A counterintuitive phenomenon occurred last year as the housing prices in the city center of Dongguan were lower than townships closer to Shenzhen. These townships are now known as “sleeping towns” for people who work in Shenzhen.

    During last year’s “Two Sessions,” local political advisers and MPC deputies in Dongguan put forward ideas to enhance the city’s infrastructure, such as building Metro lines connecting to Shenzhen in order to shorten travel time. (Zhang Qian)