More Info on Shenzhen

B5: 深圳; PY: Shēnzhèn; WG: Sham Chun; Also: Shamchun; lit. "Deep Drains"- Sub-provincial city of Guangdong province in southern Mainland China, located at the border with Hong Kong. Since the late 1970s it has been one of the fastest growing cities in China or anywhere in the world.

The one-time fishing village of Shenzhen, singled out by late Chinese paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, is the first of the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) of China. It was originally established in 1978 due to its proximity to Hong Kong, then a prosperous British colony. The SEZ was created to be an experimental ground of capitalism in communist China. The location was chosen to attract industrial investments from Hong Kong since the two places share the same language, dialect and culture. The concept was proved to be a great success, propelling the further opening up of China and continuous economic reform. Shenzhen eventually became one of the largest cities in the Pearl River Delta region which is one of the economic powerhouses of China and is the largest manufacturing base in the world. 

Shenzhen, formerly known as Bao'an County (宝安县), was promoted to prefecture level, directly governed by Guangdong province, in November 1979. In May 1980, Shenzhen was formally nominated as a 'special economic zone', the first one of its kind in China. It was given the right of provincial-level economic administration in November 1988. 

Shenzhen is the earliest of the four special economic zones in China. The late Chinese president Deng Xiaoping is usually credited with the opening up of economic revival in China, often epitomized with the city of Shenzhen, which profited the most from the first legacies of Deng.

Shenzhen Municipality comprises six districts: Luohu (罗湖), Futian (福田), Nanshan (南山), Yantian (盐田), Bao'an (宝安), and Longgang (龙岗). The Special Economic Zone comprises Luohu, Futian, Nanshan, and Yantian but not Bao'an and Longgang. 

Located in the center of the SEZ and adjacent to Hong Kong, Luohu is the financial and trading center. It covers an area of 78.89 km². Futian, where the Municipal Government is situated, is at the heart of the SEZ and covers an area of 78.04 km². Covering an area of 164.29 km², Nanshan is the center for high-tech industries and it is situated in the west of the SEZ. Outside the SEZ, Bao'an (712.92 km²) and Longgang (844.07 km²) are located to the north-west and north-east of Shenzhen respectively. Yantian (75.68 km²) is known for logistics. Yantian Port is the second largest deep water container terminal in China,and fourth largest in the world.

The boomtown of Shenzhen is located in the Pearl River Delta. It covers an area of 2,020 square kilometres (780 square miles), with a population of thirteen million. Shenzhen is a sub-tropical maritime region, with frequent typhoons in late spring and early summer, but otherwise, this city has a pleasant climate, often blessed with cool breeze at night, with an average temperature of 22.4 degrees Celsius year-round (72 degrees Fahrenheit). 

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It is located 160 km south of the provincial capital Guangzhou, 70 km south of the industrial city of Dongguan. To the northwest, resort city Zhuhai is a mere 200 km away, and it is 35 km north of Hongkong.

Shenzhen has seen its population and activity develop rapidly since the establishment of the SEZ. With its official population listed at around five million, but estimated at a total population of thirteen million in metropolitan and its peripheral areas in 2005, Shenzhen has been the fastest growing city in China for the past thirty years, and likely to be the most rapidly evolving city in the world. But one problem with such a rampart growth of population is the accompanied problem of people without hukou (with 70% of that number being residents without a permanent hukou), most "old" Shenzhenese felt that the practice of freeing the city to inland is making it less competitive with other Chinese cities. Among the reasons for this development is the cost of labor, which is substantially lower than in neighboring Hong Kong. 

There had been migrants flowing into the Shenzhen area since the Southern Song Dynasty (1127- 1279) and the number has been soaring after it was established as a city. In Guangdong, it is the only city where Mandarin is mostly spoken, with migrants from all over the country. At present, the average age in Shenzhen is less than 30. Among the total, 8.49 percent are between the age of 0 and 14, 88.41 percent between the age of 15 and 59, one-fifth between 20 and 24 and 1.22 percent are aged 65 or above. 

The population structure polarizes into two opposing extremes: densely populated intellectuals with a high level of education, and migrant workers with poor education.

According to the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, in 2002, 7,200 Hong Kong residents commuted daily to Shenzhen for work, and 2,200 students from Shenzhen commuted to school in Hong Kong. Though neighboring each other, daily commuters still need to pass through customs and immigration checkpoints as travel between the SEZ and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) is restricted. 

China relaxed travel restrictions to allow individuals from southern cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen, as well as Beijing and Shanghai, to visit Hong Kong in late July 2003. Previously, mainland travelers could only visit the city as part of tour groups.

Immigration into Shenzhen from the Chinese interior is heavily restricted by the hukou system. One consequence is that just outside of Shenzhen there are large towns which consist of a large number of migrants from the Chinese interior who attempt to enter the city.

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In 2001, the working population reached 3.3 million. Though the secondary sector of industry had the largest share (1.85 million in 2001, increased by 5.5%), the tertiary sector of industry is growing fast (1.44 million in 2001, increased by 11.6%). Shenzhen's GDP totaled CNY 492.69 billion in 2005, up by 15 percent over the previous year. Its economy grew by 16.3 percent yearly from 2001 to 2005 on average, The proportion of the three industries to the aggregate of GDP was 0.3:51.6:48.1 in 2004 and 0.2:52.4:47.4 in 2005. The proportion of the tertiary industry to GDP was down by 0.7 percent. Shenzhen is in the top ranks among mainland Chinese cities in terms of comprehensive economic power. It ranked the fourth in GDP among mainland Chinese cities in 2001, while it ranked the top in capitation GDP during the same period. Its import and export volume has been the first in the last nine consecutive years. It is the second in terms of industrial output. For five consecutive years, its internal revenue within local budget ranks the third. It comes the third in the actual use of foreign capital.

Shenzhen is also a major manufacturing center in China. One high rise a day and one boulevard every three days is one famous line referring to Shenzhen in the 1990s. With 13 buildings at over 200 meters tall, including the Shun Hing Square (the 8th tallest building in the world), Shenzen is a marvel of lights after sunset. A person cannot help but ask oneself if one is in a video game or in a real city.

Shenzhen is home to some of China's most successful high-tech companies, such as Huawei and ZTE. A number of foreign IT companies also have facilities in the city - Apple Computers has a manufacturing plant based in Shenzhen. It appears to be shipping a large majority of the new Intel based machines at this stage.
The city has more than four hundred of the world's five hundred biggest companies.

The Shenzhen Stock Exchange (the SSE) is a mutualized national stock exchange under the China Securities Regulatory Commission (the CSRC), that provides a venue for securities trading. A broad spectrum of market participants, including 540 listed companies, 35 million registered investors and 177 exchange members, create the market. Here buying and selling orders are matched in a fair, open and orderly market, through an automated system to create the best possible prices based on price-time priority.
Since its creation in 1990, the SSE has blossomed into a market of great competitive edges in the country, with a market capitalization around RMB 1 trillion (US$ 122 billion). On a daily basis, around 600,000 deals, valued US$ 807 million, trade on the SSE. 

China securities market is undergoing fundamental changes. The implementation of the new Securities Law, Company Law, self-innovation strategy as well as the development of non-tradable share reform embodies enormous opportunities to the market. Adhering to the principle of “Regulation, Innovation, Cultivation and Service”, the SSE will continue to maintain its focus on developing the Small and Medium Enterprises Board, while seeking for a tier market.

The initial public offering (IPO) activity in Shenzhen stock exchange was suspended from September 2000 as the Chinese government pondered merging its bourses into a single exchange in Shanghai and launch a Nasdaq-style second board in Shenzhen aimed at private and technology companies.

Many visitors that cross the Hong Kong SAR/mainland China border to Shenzhen go for the shopping, where goods and services are supposedly far cheaper than those in Hong Kong. However, without coming prepared knowing the prices of specific items the goods may end up being far more expensive than in Hong Kong while others are only marginally cheaper, even after a long phase of negotiating. The lack of a price differential and inconvenience may make it better off buying in Hong Kong. 

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The largest of the shopping malls is Lo Wu Commercial City, situated close to the railway station. This contains an overwhelming array of beauty parlors and stores selling clothes, handbags, fabric, jewelry and electrical goods as well as many vendors of pirated software, DVDs, counterfeit goods and mobile phones. With the number of tourists, it is also a popular location for prostitution, drugs, pickpockets and begging.
As of 2005, a modern subway links Lo Wu with most of Shenzhen along its east-west axis.

Situated in the south of the Pearl River Delta in China’s Guangdong Province, Shenzhen Port is adjacent to HK. The city’s 260km coastline is divided by the Kowloon Peninsula into two halves, the eastern and the western. Shenzhen’s western port area lies to the east of Lingdingyang in the Pearl River Estuary and possesses a deep water harbor with superb natural shelters. It is about 20 sea miles from hongkong to the south and 60 sea miles from Guangzhou to the north. By passing pearl river system, the western port area is connected with the cities and counties in pearl river delta networks; by passing On See dun waterway, it extends all ports both at home and abroad. The eastern port area lies north of Dapeng Bay where the harbor is wide and calm and is regarded as the best natural harbor in South China. 

Shenzhen handled a record number of containers in 2005, ranking as the world's fourth-busiest port, after rising trade increased cargo shipments through the southern Chinese city. Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, China Merchants Holdings (International) Co and other operators of the port handled 16.2 million standard 20-foot boxes last year, a 19 per cent increase. 

Investors in Shenzhen are expanding to take advantage of rising volume. Hong Kong-based Hutchison, the world's biggest port operator, and its Chinese partner plan to add six berths at Yantian by 2010, bringing the total to 15. China Merchants, a State-controlled port manager, said on January 6 it will increase its investment in a container terminal in Shenzhen's Mawan. The company also plans to pay its parent company HK$2.07 billion (US$265 million) for land at Shekou to expand its cargo business.

Yantian International Container Terminals, Chiwan Container Terminals, Shekou Container Terminals, China Merchants Port and Shenzhen Haixing (Mawan port) are the major port terminals in Shenzhen.

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