Considered as “the silicon valley of hardware”, Shenzhen has the power to amaze any western that comes to visit. It is a city with an amazingly vibrant landscape and an enormous growing pace, also known today as the perfect spot if you want to build or buy parts for any technology related project, for the best price in the market and with no restriction whatsoever.
However, not too long ago, the city’s story was completely different.
Shenzhen started out as nothing more than a small fishing village located in the Guangdong Province, in the south of China and a population estimated at 30 000 inhabitants. Be the end of the 1970’s the region seemed like the perfect area to develop a Chinese Economic Reform that started in December 1978. Due to its proximity to the northern neighbor Hong Kong, Shenzhen generated interest on Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. Therefore, in 1980, it was named to be the first of five Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in China, proving to be the one with the fastest growing rate until today.
The policy of “reform and opening” gave Shenzhen the opportunity to open up to the technological world and have access to foreign capital. As an SEZ, the city became a hub for foreign investment that was relatively free of the bureaucratic regulations and had cheap and fast labor to work with. This new and more flexible working methods allowed the economy to expand and attracted millions of Chinese workers to invest and work in the region.
While the city skyline was unfolding, so did the small ecosystems that were being created among the city. Small factories that could produce or build any kind of small part were everywhere. They would sell their parts to distributors that at the same time would buy other parts from different small factories, all located in Shenzhen. It was a very efficient collaborative environment that grew organically at a very fast pace.
The city now holds an estimated of almost 20 million people and thousands of factories. And is also home to big technology player’s headquarters such as Tencent, Foxconn, Byd, among others. This ever-evolving giant will keep rising, as a window of technology and knowledge to the external world.