A coastal city in Guangdong province, Zhuhai borders Macao on the south and is near Hong Kong. It was one of the first batch of special economic zones designated in 1980, as the mainland sought to reform and open its economy.

It would be another nine years before the Chinese University of Hong Kong set up its branch in Shenzhen, and 16 years before the expected opening of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology's Guangzhou campus in 2021.

On this racetrack, Baptist University had a head start over other Hong Kong universities. But soon after taking charge of the school, Tang realized the hard truth: A lead is not guaranteed.

Tang said he hesitated when he received the invitation to head UIC. Fifteen years after its establishment, the school was looking for a new leader after the founding president Ng's planned retirement in 2019.

At that time, Tang had been vice-president of Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen for four years. A designated experimental ground for the nation's higher education reform, the school had established itself as a higher-learning institution with huge potential for growth.

It was also while there that Tang was made a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the nation's top science agency with only about 800 members. Born in Anhui province, Tang graduated in 1984 from Peking University, one of the country's top universities. After obtaining a doctorate degree and tenure track abroad, he worked at Baptist University for 17 years, and later moved to Shenzhen.

Zhuhai lagged far behind Shenzhen in the economic and scientific spheres. But determined to finish what he had started, Tang accepted the invitation and moved from the east bank of the Pearl River to the west.

The school lacked the experience to seek assistance from the local government at the early stage, either in funds, land or educational facilities. When established, the school got a HK$150 million (US$19.4 million) startup fund from Baptist University.

The other parent institution, the Beijing Normal University, provided an area in Zhuhai for UIC to build its first teaching blocks for the college students to attend classes from 2005 to 2017. After that, it moved to a new site covering 300 mu (20 hectares), which the Zhuhai government provided for free. But the new site still fell short of the national standards of 500 mu needed to qualify as a university campus. And there was no space for an outdoor stadium.