The city of Shenzhen in China developed at a rate unseen before in history. Before the 1980’s it was a small fishing village formerly known as Bao’an County, today it’s a sprawling city of 12 million+ inhabitants and is still growing. Recently I stumbled across some fascinating pictures showing its development over the past 30 years which I thought I’d share –
Before (circa 1980):
Shenzhen Bay around Shawei, Shatou and Huanggang – mostly farmland.
During (circa 80’s / early 90’s):
The plan begins to come together with Deng Xiaoping at the helm – Shenzhen Special Economic Zone is born.
After (mid-1990’s):
Southern China has a new financial centre and the second busiest port in China.
I find it utterly incredible to think that almost within my own lifetime (of 24 years and counting) that a city of this magnitude has sprung up out of the proverbial dust. The perfect storm of investment, labour and location have come together to produce something as scary as it is magnificent in such a short space of time. Tighter integration with Hong Kong will only increase this.
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