Shenzhen is a major city in Guangdong Province, China. Shenzhen is located immediately north of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It currently also holds sub-provincial administrative status, with powers slightly less than a province.
Shenzhen was a market town of 30,000 people on the route of the Kowloon–Canton Railway. That changed in 1979 when Shenzhen was promoted to city-status and in 1980 designated China’s first Special Economic Zone (SEZ). According to the Government report for 2015, Shenzhen had transformed to a city with population of 10,778,900 and a metropolitan area population of over 18 million. Shenzhen was one of the fastest-growing cities in the world during the 1990s and the 2000s. Shenzhen's population boom slowed down to less than one percent per year by 2013 as the manufacturing boom ebbed in favor of other industries.
Shenzhen's modern cityscape is the result of its vibrant economy made possible by rapid foreign investment since the institution of the policy of "reform and opening" establishment of the SEZ in late 1979. Significant sums of finance have been invested into the SEZ by both Chinese citizens and foreign nationals. More than US$30 billion in foreign investment has gone into both foreign-owned and joint ventures, at first mainly in manufacturing but more recently in the service industries as well.
Shenzhen is a major financial center in southern China. The city is home to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange as well as the headquarters of numerous high-tech companies. Shenzhen ranks 19th in the 2016 edition of the Global Financial Centres Index published by the Z/Yen Group and Qatar Financial Centre Authority. It also has one of the busiest container ports in the world.
Though Shenzhen is situated about a degree south of the Tropic of Cancer, due to the Siberian anticyclone, it has a warm, monsoon-influenced, humid subtropical climate. Winters are mild and relatively dry, due in part to the influence of the South China Sea, and frost is very rare; it begins dry but becomes progressively more humid and overcast. However, fog is most frequent in winter and spring, with 106 days per year reporting some fog. Early spring is the cloudiest time of year, and rainfall begins to dramatically increase in April; the rainy season lasts until late September to early October. The monsoon reaches its peak intensity in the summer months, when the city also experiences very humid, and hot, but moderated, conditions; there are only 2.4 days of 35 °C (95 °F)+ temperatures. The region is prone to torrential rain as well, with 9.7 days that have 50 mm (1.97 in) or more of rain, and 2.2 days of at least 100 mm (3.94 in). The latter portion of autumn is dry. The annual precipitation averages at around 1,970 mm (78 in), some of which is delivered in typhoons that strike from the east during summer and early autumn. Extreme temperatures have ranged from 0.2 °C (32 °F) on 11 February 1957 to 38.7 °C (102 °F) on 10 July 1980.
In 2015, Shenzhen's GDP totaled $270 billion, putting it on par with a mid-sized province by terms of total GDP. Its total economic output is higher than that of Portugal, the Republic of Ireland, and Vietnam. Its per-capita GDP was CNY164,664 ($25,038) as of 2014, on par with some of the developed countries of the OECD. Shenzhen was the first of the Special Economic Zones to be established and it showed the most rapid growth, averaging at a very high growth rate of 40% per annum between 1981 and 1993, compared to the average GDP growth of 9.8% for the country as a whole. The economic growth later slowed after this early breakneck pace; from 2001 to 2005, Shenzhen's overall GDP grew by 16.3 percent yearly on average, though growth has slowed to around 10% per year since 2012. Shenzhen is in the top ranks among mainland Chinese cities in terms of comprehensive economic power. Shenzhen's economic output is ranked fourth among the 659 Chinese cities (behind Beijing,Shanghai and Guangzhou).
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%). The proportion of the three industries to the aggregate of GDP was 0.1:46.7:53.2 in 2009. The proportion of the primary industry to GDP was down by 13.4%, and the tertiary industry was up by 12.5%. Its import and export volumes have been first for 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 third. It also ranks third in the use of foreign capital.
Shenzhen is a major manufacturing center in China. In the 1990s, Shenzhen was described as constructing "one high-rise a day and one boulevard every three days". The Shenzhen's rapidly growing skyline is regarded as one of the best in the world. It currently has 59 buildings at over 200 meters tall, including the Kingkey 100 (the 14th tallest building in the world) andShun Hing Square (the 19th tallest building in the world).
Shenzhen is home to some of China's most successful high-tech companies, including BYD, Konka, Skyworth, Tencent, Coolpad,ZTE, Gionee, TP-Link, DJI, BGI (Beijing Genomics Institute), OnePlus and Huawei. Taiwan's largest company, Hon Hai Group, has a large manufacturing plant based in Shenzhen. Many foreign high-tech companies have their China operations centers located in the Science and Technology Park of the Nanshan District. Additional examples of successful Chinese companies with large operation in Shenzhen include, China International Marine Containers which is the largest container-manufacturing company in the world, and Vanke which is the largest residential real estate developer in China. In the financial sector, Ping An Bank and China Merchants Bank are some of the largest banks in China, with headquarters in Shenzhen.
Due to its unique status, Shenzhen is also an extremely fertile ground for startups, be it by Chinese or foreign entrepreneurs. Successful startups includePetcube, Palette, WearVigo, Notch and Makeblock. Shenzhen is also the product development base of the hardware startup accelerator, HAX Accelerator(formerly HAXLR8R).
Shenzhen Convention & Exhibition Center is a large public construction project with multiple functions of hosting business activities, celebrations, conferences, conventions, entertainment events, exhibitions, restaurants and all kinds of shows.
The tallest building in Shenzhen is Kingkey 100, rising 441.8 metres (1,449 ft) and containing 100 floors of office and hotel spaces. Shenzhen is also the home to another of the world's tallest building, the Shun Hing Square (Diwang Building). The city has 59 buildings over 200 m (656 ft) built and topped out, and 9 of them are over 300 m (980 ft). mostly concentrated in Nanshan and Futian districts. The third tallest building in Shenzhen is SEG Plaza at a height of 356 meters (291.6 meters to roof-top), located in the popular electronics district of Huaqiangbei.
Shenzhen has some of the largest public projects in China,and a large number of these projects are of tall buildings,to list just a few.The Guomao Buildingwas the tallest building in China when it was completed in 1985. The Shun Hing Square was the tallest in Asia (if the antenna is taken into account) when it was built in 1996. It remains the tallest steel building in China.
A number of the supertalls that have been either proposed, approved or under construction are well over 400 m (1,312 ft). The tallest among these supertalls under construction is the 599-meter Ping An Finance Centre, which will become the second tallest in China and the fourth tallest building in the world upon its scheduled completion in 2016.
Population: 13 million
Temperature: average 25.5 °C (77.9℉).
