Overview

The city of Shenzhen is located on the East side of the Pearl River/ the Pearl River Estuary, just north of Kowloon Peninsula, the part of Hong Kong that is contiguous with mainland China. The city's relationship to Hong Kong, for all practical purposes, is that of a suburb, albeit, a very new and modern suburb. In fact, the city of Shenzhen has today become an integral part of Hong Kong, serving many supportive functions for Hong Kong for which there is simply not space in Hong Kong itself, given that Hong Kong is also home to millions of residents who feel a special attachment to the city and who therefore would not be inclined to make way for yet more skyscrapers and office blocks to, for example, house the many foreign trade representations that wish to set up shop in Hong Kong.

Fortunately for Hong Kong, nearby Shenzhen was something of a blank page waiting to be written on - and written on, it has indeed been since the late 1970s, when foreign direct investment began to forever transform this sleepy fishing village into a modern metropolis.

The sleepy fishing village that was Shenzhen up until the end of the 1970s began to experience exponential growth thereafter, following the opening of China and the changed regulation that was implemented at that time, permitting foreign direct investment. Since then, Shenzhen's growth has literally skyrocketed (think: skyscrapers). Shenzhen is one of the fastest-growing cities in China, attracting much talent from all over the country as well as from abroad, since Shenzhen has become renowned as a place of opportunity. The city is home to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE), one of China's four bourses. In spite of its rapid growth, the city's expansion has managed to incorporate "the best of both worlds", i.e., the natural world (parks, gardens, a zoo, an 18-hole golf course, etc.) combined with the glass-steel-&-concrete world of skyscrapers.

Besides its role as a high-tech powerhouse and as a budding financial center, Shenzhen is committed to preserving the beauty and the ambience of its South China Sea location, so as to strengthen the city's role as a popular tourist destination as well. Popular attractions in and around the city include the Evergreen Resort, the Yinhu Resort, Honey Lake Holiday Village, the Chinese Folk Culture Villages, Fairy Lake Botanical Gardens, Xiaomeisha Beach Park, the Wild Animal Zoo and Guanlan Lake Golf Resort.

With its mild climate and its cosmopolitan feel, Shenzhen is something of a pearl for its permanent residents as well as for its many visitors who feel as much at home in this smartly attractive seaport city as back in San Diego or in Baltimore in the US, or in La Rochelle, France, for that matter.