Shenzhen

Country: People's Republic of China · 17,494,398 inhabitants · Founded: 1979

Attractions

Wikivoyage

Shenzhen (深圳; Shēnzhèn in Mandarin, Sāmjan in Cantonese) is a fast-paced city of ambition and enterprise: engineers on the cutting edge of modern technology, hardscrabble farmers coming to the big city in search of a better life, middle managers who dream of someday opening their own factories, designers looking to sell to a global market, and all manner of entrepreneurs from across China.

One of the most populous and richest cities in China, Shenzhen is in Guangdong Province on the Hong Kong border about 100 km south of Guangzhou. Shenzhen has been growing like crazy since the 1980s, thanks to its position on the border with Hong Kong and a government program to encourage investment. It's a dynamic, booming and futuristic city whose population comes from all over China. The city has become a center for international trade and manufacturing, especially electronics, leading many to call it the "Silicon Valley of China", and it's on the list of UNESCO Creative Cities as a design hub. No trip to Shenzhen will be complete without visiting at least one of its massive electronics markets. It is also an important financial hub, being home to mainland China's second largest stock exchange after the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Other draws for visitors include an array of amusement parks as well as extensive, scenic mountains for hiking.

Wikipedia

Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in the province of Guangdong, China. A special economic zone, it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong, bordering Hong Kong to the south, Dongguan to the north, Huizhou to the northeast, and Macau to the southwest. With a population of 17.5 million in 2020, Shenzhen is the third-most-populous city by urban population in China after Shanghai and Beijing. The Port of Shenzhen is the world's fourth-busiest container port.

Shenzhen roughly follows the administrative boundaries of Bao'an County, which was established in imperial times. As a result of the Opium Wars, the southern portion of Bao'an County was ceded to Britain and became part of British Hong Kong, while the village of Shenzhen was next to the border. Shenzhen turned into a city in 1979. In the early 1980s, the reform and opening up introduced by Deng Xiaoping resulted in the city becoming the first special economic zone of China due to its close proximity to Hong Kong, attracting foreign direct investment and migrants searching for opportunities. In thirty years, the city's economy and population boomed and has since emerged as a hub for technology, international trade, and finance.

Shenzhen is home to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, one of the largest stock exchanges in the world by market capitalization, and the Guangdong Free-Trade Zone. Shenzhen is ranked as an Alpha- (global first-tier) city by the GaWC. Its nominal GDP has surpassed those of the neighboring cities of Guangzhou and Hong Kong and it is now a city with one of the ten largest economies in the world. Shenzhen also has the second-largest number of skyscrapers, fifth-highest number of billionaires, and the seventh-most Fortune Global 500 headquarters of any city in the world. It is also the eighth-most competitive and largest financial center in the world, and the world's 18th largest city by scientific research output, and has several higher education institutions, including Shenzhen University and SUSTech. Shenzhen railway station was the last stop on the mainland Chinese section of the Kowloon–Canton Railway.

The city is a global technology hub. In the media Shenzhen is sometimes called China's Silicon Valley. The city's entrepreneurial, innovative, and competitive-based culture has resulted in the city being home to numerous small manufacturers and software companies. Several of these firms have become large technology corporations, such as Huawei, Tencent, DJI, and Oppo. As an important international city, Shenzhen hosts numerous national and international events every year, such as the 2011 Summer Universiade and the China Hi-Tech Fair. Shenzhen is home to the main operations of BYD Company, and is the largest automobile manufacturing city in China.

A large portion of Shenzhen's population are migrants from all over China, and the city's population structure skews younger than most cities in China.