Shenzhen, having grown from a small town on the South China Sea into a modern metropolis which now rivals Hong Kong, is itself a wonderful epitome of China’s reforms and opening up and its drive toward modernity.

The history of Shenzhen is an exciting saga encapsulating China’s urbanization, industrialization and modernization.

Some 6700 years ago, in the New Stone Age, a group of aboriginals lived on the long narrow coastline of today’s Shenzhen. They made fire with flint and made a living by hunting and fishing.

In 1410 (the eighth year of the Yongle reign of the Ming Dynasty), “Shenzhen” first appeared in historical records as the locality’s place name.

In March 1979, Shenzhen was established as a city, founded on a fishing village so small that one could walk round it in the time to smoke a cigarette. At that time, moving to neighboring Hong Kong on the opposite side of a river was still a much-cherished dream of Shenzhen’s 30,000 locals.

On August 26, 1980, the National People’s Congress approved the establishment of a special economic zone (SEZ) in Shenzhen. From then on, things began to change: People from Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Taiwan as well as Americans poured into Shenzhen with funds, information and logistics – and also their desires and dreams. The quiet border town of Shenzhen began to serve as a testing ground and a window for the rest of China, allowing exploration of differing potential paths for China’s reform and opening up. Since then, the city has grown fast, and developed an avant-garde magnanimity, world vision and global perspective.

Shenzhen, in the short span of 30 years, has grown from a small town with a population of only over 30,000 and several streets into a modern metropolis with a per capita GDP of premier rank amongst Chinese mainland cities. It is a legend in world history, a miracle of urbanization, industrialization and modernization.

There’s a Western saying that “Rome was not built in a day.” But when visitors and citizens climb to the top of the 383.95-meter-high Diwang Mansion and overlook the picturesque city of Shenzhen, nothing can stop the exclamations. Shenzhen is a miraculous reality: an overnight city!

I Am a Shenzhener

Modesty is not what the citizens of Shenzhen seek to show. They are people of action and have constantly proved themselves: “We are the best.”

Shenzhen has a registered population of about 2.12 million and 8.62 million permanent residents. But in this city, no matter where you are from, from Hunan, Sichuan, Hong Kong and Taiwan, or from South Korea and the United States, all people who live and work in the city are all Shenzheners.

Miracle always hovers over every Shenzhener.

Yuan Geng, aged 63 then, might have opted for the easy life of old age. Instead, he embraced the ‘birth’ of Shekou, a “test tube baby” born of China’s reform and opening up. During his 14 years in Shekou, Yuan boosted the assets of China Merchants Group from 100 million yuan to 20 billion yuan.

In 1983, Wang Shi, a young but aspiring feed seller, could have never imagined that 20 years later, he would have created a legend, “the era of Wang Shi,” in China’s real estate industry.

Ren Zhengfei founded Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., and in less than 18 years he has increased his start-up capital from 20,000 yuan to 100 billion yuan. The company he founded is now one of the most respected companies in China.

Ma Huateng launched his company 11 years ago; its capital assets now amount to US$800 million. This 38-year-old young man created an Internet legend which is now the rage across China. Ma was selected by the U.S. Time magazine as one of the world’s most influential business people.

An Zi, an ordinary female migrant worker with no college diplomas, became a successful writer in Shenzhen. She holds the belief that everyone can become the sun in Shenzhen.

Cong Fei touched the emotions of people across China through his work in sending funds to support 178 poverty-stricken children in the mountainous areas in Guizhou, Sichuan and Hunan over a period of 11 years. He will be remembered by the people forever. 

Li Yundi, dubbed “China’s piano prince,” has global renown. His reputation made Shenzhen City well-known as the birthplace of his melodious music.

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Some people came to Shenzhen to cast off the restraint of the old ways and systems in China; some came to partake of ‘the gold rush’ that Shenzhen generates; some came with hopes for recovery after bankruptcy; some came to extricate themselves from a breakup with their lovers… Over the past 28 years, millions of people have left their hometowns, marching towards the circle in the ground Deng Xiaoping drew as the foundations of Shenzhen. It’s a legendary, almost magical movement of migrants.

In this dynamic city, citizens hold in common a belief in ambition, in freedom, in never giving up…  The “spirit of pioneering bull,” now the emblem of Shenzhen, and its migrant culture have made the Shenzhen SEZ, once based on the processing trades, into an avant-garde city focusing on the development of high-tech industry. They have also made the city, originally with few universities and almost no research institutes, well-known in the world for its technological and intellectual innovations.

A German visitor wrote in his diary: “Many young people who live a staid and ordinary life elsewhere become bold and like to take risks here. They buy their first car and first house here, and also launch their first company here.”

It takes only a few years for Shenzhen people to accomplish what elsewhere can take aeons.

The citizens of Shenzhen, on average aged 27 years old, have a unique personality. They are the best. Modesty is not what they seek to show. They are people of action and have constantly proved themselves: “We are the best.”

Shenzhen Speed

Professor David D. Ho of Rockefeller University (USA) said: Shenzhen has the kind of entrepreneurial spirit that can achieve anything.

On October 12, 2007, the distinguished science journal Nature published a special issue entitled “Spotlight on Shenzhen,” making Shenzhen the first Chinese mainland city to be covered in its “Spotlight” series. The opening words were: “Once a poor village, Shenzhen is now one of the wealthiest cities in China.”

Nature’s journalists were astounded at Shenzhen’s speed of development: “Few, if any, cities in the world can boast the kind of dramatic change that Shenzhen has experienced.”

In 2003, the appearance of SARS (sudden acute respiratory syndrome) caused panic in the world. When President Hu Jintao came to Shenzhen, he asked Feng Guanping, president of the Research Institute of Tsinghua University Shenzhen, if they could develop a device to detect SARS. Ten days later, Feng’s team had made an infrared sensor capable of detecting SARS. Feng described his decade in Shenzhen as "the most exciting 10 years of my life."

This small episode is an example of “Shenzhen Speed” — a new icon symbolizing the power of development in Shenzhen. Shenzhen became a household name in the 1980s for its high-speed urban development - “building three floors a day.” Some other Shenzhen concepts, like “Time is life, efficiency is money,” have effected a brainstorming revolution in the thinking of more than 1 billion Chinese on the mainland.

“What I remembered about Shenzhen is just a manufacturing factory, a city with booming export business,” David Swinbanks, publishing director of Nature Publishing Group, said in October 2004 when he came to Shenzhen to attend a forum. “How could Shenzhen possibly be just a manufacturing factory back then? Now Shenzhen is a high-tech center boasting famous companies such as Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and ZTE. It is also a research and development base hosting renowned universities including Tsinghua University and Peking University. What came to my mind first were parallels with Silicon Valley in the United States. It is simply amazing for Shenzhen to develop from a small fishing village into a high-tech powerhouse in such a short span of time. Its development is unique among Chinese cities.”

Swinbanks continued to say: “I think many foreigners are just like me. We don’t know what the real Shenzhen is like.”

In commenting on Shenzhen’s miraculous transformation from a border town into a high-tech powerhouse, world-famous AIDS expert David D. Ho, CEO of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center and professor at Rockefeller University, said that Shenzhen has the kind of entrepreneurial spirit that can achieve anything. This entrepreneurial spirit has won the city respect as well as huge honors.

Shenzhen, after less than 30 years of development, has been transformed from being a city with no university and with just two technicians to an important scientific and technological innovation center as well as a high-tech industrialization base.

Currently, Shenzhen holds the highest number of patent applications, Chinese brand-name products and world brand-name products in China. Dozens of internationally well-known companies, such as Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., ZTE, China Merchants Group, Skyworth, Konka, Great Wall, Ping An Bank, Ping An of China and Vanke, have, by their presence, made the Shenzhen legend grow.

The 2007 Blue Book on China Urban Competitiveness, issued by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, ranked Shenzhen first in the category of top 10 cities in overall urban competitiveness.

The New York Times wrote that Shenzhen has become the literal and symbolic heart of the Chinese economic miracle. Its much admired smooth forward development is also a manifestation of the value of freedom.

Shenzhen Charisma

More and more Shenzhen people who migrated here have come to find that the city, originally more a place for young people to build their career, is also suitable for people to live and enjoy their old age.

Aberdeen, a port city on the east coast of Scotland, enjoys the reputation of being Europe’s City of Roses. In May 1984, when Yuan Geng, who directed the dynamics of Shekou’s reform, visited Aberdeen, he was inspired to turn Shekou into a city of roses.

His vision was to plant red, yellow and white roses in Shekou’s streets and open urban spaces using global rose transplantation methods. Two years later, Scotland’s roses were romantically transplanted to his Shekou.

Now the story continues, which shows Shenzhen citizens’ love for beauty.

Shenzhen is so beautiful that it makes people from all over the world forget this is a place far away from their home. The Dapeng Peninsula was selected by Chinese National Geography magazine as “one of China’s eight most beautiful coastlines.” The Xiaomeisha beach has been dubbed as the “Oriental Hawaii,” while the OCT East resort is known as “China’s Interlaken.”

In the coastal scenic zone, comprising Shenzhen Bay, Overseas Chinese Town, Happy Valley, Lotus Hill and Fairy Lake Botanical Garden, you can feel the pulse of Shenzhen’s steady powerful growth. That zone should be viewed as one of Asia’s most spectacular corridors, showcasing the beauty of harmony between man and nature.

More and more Shenzhen people who migrated here have come to find that the city, originally more a place for young people to build their career, is also suitable for people to live and enjoy their old age. In Shenzhen there is an endless stream of calls for tours and activities organized by “donkeys” on the Internet. More than 100,000 families own a piano each. More and more people choose to spend their weekends in book cities or teahouses and book salons with various cultural leanings.

People have the freedom to hold religious beliefs in this young and stylish city.  The Catholic Church in Meilin, the Christian Church in Xiangmihu and the Buddhism Hongfa Temple are all equally sacred places in the hearts of their believers, and all are allowed. In the square of downtown Lotus Hill Park, people feed pigeons with bread and a flock of happy pigeons fly lithely in the blue sky.

In Shenzhen birds are singing and the air is permeated with the fragrance of flowers; the hills are green and the sea is blue. Romantic lovers, passers-by hurrying to the next meeting, relaxed elders, frolicking children and soaring migratory birds all contribute to creating a lively and beautiful picture of city life. Youth, vigor and love demonstrate the city’s harmony and dynamism. And Shenzhen has won the right to host the 26th Summer Universiade in 2011, becoming the youngest host city in Universiade’s history.

What people feel most keenly in Shenzhen’s less-than-30-year history is that there would be no Shenzhen if there was no dream. Shenzhen, a city with dreams, passion, and loving care for its citizens, is a city without winter.

A Vision for Shenzhen

Shenzhen people will continue to write, with avant-garde magnanimity and world perspective, the legend of building a city filled with the glories and dreams of the Chinese people.

In November 2003, world renowned U.S. scholar Richard Florida used satellite images to observe the world at night and identify the outlines of each region with light emissions. He found to his surprise that one of the brightest lit regions was Hong Kong and Shenzhen in South China. He predicted it was portent of the emergence of a new megalopolis. He even created a name “Hong-Zhen” for the two cities whose light emissions were joined together.

Marcopolo Tam, known as “King of World Maps,” is Hong Kong’s supreme interpreter of Shenzhen. He recalled the unforgettable remarks made by a Japanese journalist in 1982. It was said that Shenzhen and Hong Kong will definitely become a megalopolis on equal par with Tokyo.

Today, this prediction is turning into reality. The blueprint of Shenzhen and Hong Kong jointly working toward bi-city megalopolis is gradually unfolding... With their GDP growing at 8 percent annually, Shenzhen and Hong Kong will become the third-largest global economic powerhouse ranked next only to New York and Tokyo — and bigger than London.

Shenzhen people will continue to write, with avant-garde magnanimity and world perspective, the legend of building a city filled with the glories and dreams of the Chinese people.