Shenzhen China

Description: Shenzhen is a city and special economic zone on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, bordering Hong Kong to the south, Dongguan to the north, and Huizhou to the northeast. With a population of 17.56 million in 2020, Shenzhen is the third most populous city by urban population in China after Shanghai and Beijing. It is an important center of technology, research, manufacturing, economics, finance, tourism, transportation. The Port of Shenzhen is the world’s fourth busiest container port.

Population: 17,561,452

Demographics:  Area is composed of Hakka and Cantonese people. The city attracted migrants from all around Guangdong, including Hakka, Cantonese, and Teochew, as well as migrants from Southern and Central Chinese provinces such as Hunan, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Sichuan, and Henan. Most of these migrants live in urban villages called chengzhongcun (城中村; ‘village in the city’) such as Baishizhou in the Nanshan District. Shenzhen also has a notable Korean minority based in the Nanshan District and the Futian District originating from migrants moving to Shenzhen to work for South Korean companies that had branched out into the city when China had opened up.

History: The oldest evidence of humans in the area on which Shenzhen was established dates back during the mid-Neolithic period. Since then, this area has seen human activity from more than 6,700 years ago, with Shenzhen’s historic counties first established 1,700 years ago, and the historic towns of Nantou and Dapeng, which was built on the area that is now Shenzhen, established more than 600 years ago. Bao’an County lost two-thirds of its territory to the neighboring Dongguan and was incorporated into Dongguan in 1669. After the Qing dynasty was defeated by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in the First Opium War and the Second Opium Wars, Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula were ceded to the British in the Treaty of Nanking and the Convention of Peking. On 21 April 1898 the Qing government signed a “Special Article for the Exhibition of Hong Kong’s Borders” with the United Kingdom, and leased the New Territories from Xin’an to the United Kingdom for 99 years. Xin’an was briefly occupied by a British force under the command of Henry Arthur Blake, the governor of Hong Kong, for half a year in 1899. From the 3,076 square kilometres (1,188 sq mi) of territory that Xin’an held before the treaties, 1,055.61 square kilometres (407.57 sq mi) of the county was ceded to the British. In 1953, four years after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Bao’an County government decided to move to Shenzhen, since the town was closer to the KCR and had a larger economy than Nantou. From the 1950s to the end of the 1970s, Shenzhen and the rest of Bao’an County oversaw a huge influx of refugees trying to escape to Hong Kong from the upheavals that were occurring in mainland China, and a range from 100,000 to 560,000 refugees resided in the county. On 23 January 1979, the Guangdong provincial administration and the district of Huiyang announced their proposal to rename Bao’an County to Shenzhen and was approved and put into effect by the State Council on March 5 of that year. In May 1980 the Central Committee designated Shenzhen as the first SEZ in China, which was promoted by then-paramount leader Deng Xiaoping as part of China’s “reform and opening-up” reforms which were set up a year previously. Its objective is to be an experimental ground for the practice of market capitalism within a community guided by the ideals of socialism with Chinese characteristics. On 26 August, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) approved the “Regulations of the Guangdong Special Economic Zone.” On 18 August 2019 the central government in Beijing unveiled reform plans covering economic, social, and political sectors of Shenzhen, labeling Shenzhen a pilot demonstration zone for socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Elevation: 944 m

Climate: Humid subtropical climate. Average annual temperature in Shenzhen is 22 C (72 F), the average for July is 32 C (90 F), the average for January is 12 C (54 F).

Attractions: Happy Valley, Window Of The World, Dafen Oil Painting Village, Lianhuashan Park, Lizhi Park, OCT Harbour, Wutong Mountain, Bay Park

Airports: Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport SZH

Distance To City Centre: 35 km

Commute Length: 45 min

Average Cost: 35 USD

Peak Times: 6am-9am, 4pm-8pm