Shenzhen is a city of dreams. 20 years ago Shenzhen was just a small town on the seaside with a population of about 20 000, much unknown to the Chinese, let alone foreigners.

But with the great efforts of the past two decades, it has been changing amazingly fast, faster than one can imagine. As a result, it has been turned into a modern metropolis, even larger than Hong Kong, with a population of over 7 million, about 3 596 people per sq km.

Covering an area of 2 020 sq km, Shenzhen is located 147 km away from Guangzhou, down in the south and connected with Hong Kong via Luohu (Lo Wu) Bridge. Only in 1979 was Shenzhen given the status of a city, and became one of the first five SEC zones in 1980 in China.

It consists of six districts as follows: Futian, Luohu, Yantian, Nanshan, Bao'an and Longgang. With a coastal monsoon climate, the local coastal marine weather conditions are pretty good, with an average temperature of 14¡ã in winter and 28¡ã in summer, and with a rich rainfall of 1 900 mm annually. But typhoons and rainstorms are not unusual in summer and autumn.

In order to understand Shenzhen better, one needs to get close to its people. Shenzhen is a city of migrants and more than 95 percent of the city's population is from the other parts of China. Their miscellaneous backgrounds are tempered by modern urban civilization, producing a new regional culture characterized by diligence, go-getting spirit, open-mindedness, and adaptability to new concepts and modes.

There are e-shopping computers in all the main public places, and at the entrances to the office buildings, which indicates the digitalization level of the city and openness of the locals to innovation.

This crowded population is highly qualified (8 060 at college level out of 100 000), made up of mainly young talents, less than 35 years old on average and "stolen" from all the parts of China, even from abroad.

Shenzhen is a city made up of migrants with diverse cultural backgrounds. According to the 5th national census in 2000, there were 5.81 million migrants, about 80% of the total urbanites, the highest ratio in China. Because of what is mentioned above, probably, Shenzhen is the fastest growing city in the world, or even in human history in a sense.

Shenzhen is rich in building materials, such as granite, marble, limestone, sand and kaolin in its suburban areas. So it is very advantageous for urban construction. Shenzhen has been well known for its construction speed. As a matter of fact, the whole city has been a huge construction site for almost 20 years, with high-rises sprouting out one after another every day. It seems to many people that Shenzhen, as a metropolis, appeared over night as in a fairy tale.

With a 230-km-long coastal line, Shenzhen is a city with a dozen ports, such as Shekou, Chiwan and Yantian ports. Shenzhen's western port, mainly including Chiwan and Shekou international container terminals, has now become the largest port on the Chinese mainland in terms of handling international transshipment goods.

Adjacent to Hong Kong, it is very advantageous to develop its foreign trade. So the special economic zone plans to speed up efforts to turn Shenzhen's ports into multifunctional world-class container terminals during the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005).

At present, the city has nine commercial ports and 128 wharf berths of over 500 tonnage, among which are 10 special container terminals and 39 deepwater berths of over 10 000 tonnage. By 2005, Shenzhen will have 19 more wharf berths and will set up a comprehensive harbor network.

Apart from ports and harbors, Guangzhou-Shenzhen Railway, Guangzhou-Shenzhen Expressway and Beijing-Kowloon Railway link Shenzhen to other cities. Bao'an Airport in Shenzhen is one of the largest in China. Guangzhou-Shenzhen Railway, perhaps, is one of the busiest in the world. The trains start off in only 9-minute intervals from morning (6:30) till night (22:00). The express can go as fast as 200 km per hour, taking only 55 minutes to travel between Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Shenzhen is one of the few cities in China planning to build a city metro system. The subway has been the city's most ambitious construction program ever and is critical to the city's future economic and social development.

It is listed as the top priority for Shenzhen's 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-2005). The first phase of this South China city's subway is now under construction. The work entails building 19.5 kilometers of subway, including the eastern part of Line 1 and the southern part of Line 4. The tube will run from the eastern part of the city, across the city's busiest artery Shennan Lu and towards the western and southern areas. It will have 18 stations, including one on ground level and 13 buildings along the Line 1. The Exhibition Center will be the interchange station for the two lines. The subway will link Luohu Port in the city's Luohu District and Huanggang Port in Futian District on the Hong Kong-Shenzhen border, with La Wu and Lak Ma Chau ports in Hong Kong SAR.

Furthermore, Shenzhen is to build seven new towns outside its present special economic zone in the coming decade. The new satellite towns will take shape in three to five years. Each new town will have its own distinctive architectural features, with a supposed population of 0.5 million and with an estimated capacity of about 10 billion yuan (about 1.21 billion US dollars) in GDP.  

As China's first special economic zone, Shenzhen's GDP per capita reached 39 700 yuan in 2000, the highest among the major cities in China. Shenzhen has announced its ambitious goal of achieving modernization by 2005 when its per capita gross domestic product (GDP) reaches 63 100 yuan (US$7 602).

 It is planning to become an international metropolis backed by three pillar industries: information technology (IT), its logistic and financial sectors, according to the draft report of the city's 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05). The city has also set up a long-term plan to close the gap with the developed countries by 2010. Over the next five years, the city will realize an average annual GDP growth rate of 12 per cent, which will reach 300 billion yuan (US$36.1 billion) by 2005. The industrial framework will be adjusted so that the added value from the service industry will contribute 50 per cent to the GDP, while high-tech will account for half of the city's total industrial output value in time.
 Convinced that an educated work force is crucial to its success, the municipal government will initial a series of relaxed and flexible rules to attract professionals from both home and abroad. It plans to attract 300 000 skilled people during the 10th Five-Year Plan period.

There are already several colleges and universities: Shenzhen University, Shenzhen Polytechnic College, Shenzhen Educational College, Shenzhen Open University, and Shenzhen Branch of Jinan University. They play an important role in Shenzhen high-tech industries.

The local government pledges to put 3% of its GDP into environmental protection. A huge investment of 3.5 billion yuan (US$421.7) has been dedicated to cleaning the rivers in particular since 2001. People's living standard will further improve, with the average disposable income of residents reaching 33 000 yuan (US$3 980) by 2005.

Editor: Catherine