Shenzhen

Not to be confused with Schengen Area. For other uses, see Shenzhen (disambiguation).

Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong, China. It is a special economic zone on the east side of the Pearl River estuary, on the central coast of Guangdong. It borders Hong Kong to the south, Dongguan to the north, Huizhou to the northeast, and Macau to the southwest. In 2025, Shenzhen had 18.2 million people. It is the third-most-populous city in China by urban population, after Shanghai and Beijing. The Port of Shenzhen is the world's fourth-busiest container port. In recent years, Shenzhen's economy has grown larger than that of Hong Kong and Singapore. It has become a major global city.

Shenzhen was a mostly rural area with villages until it became a city in 1979. In the early 1980s, the reform and opening up started by Deng Xiaoping made the city the first special economic zone in China. Its location next to Hong Kong helped it attract foreign direct investment and people looking for new opportunities. Over thirty years, the city's economy and population grew very quickly. It is now a center for technology, international trade, and finance. As of 2026, Shenzhen is still a leading global trading hub. Recent rankings place it alongside other major cities like Singapore, and it is the No. 1 mainland Chinese city for foreign trade.

Shenzhen is home to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, one of the largest stock exchanges in the world by market value, and to the Guangdong Free-Trade Zone. The GaWC ranks the city as an Alpha− city, which is a global first-tier city. Its economy is now larger than that of Hong Kong and also that of another neighboring city, Guangzhou. Shenzhen is one of the ten largest economies in the world. It has the second-largest number of skyscrapers, the fifth-highest number of billionaires, and the seventh-most Fortune Global 500 headquarters of any city in the world. The city is the eighth-most competitive city and a large financial center. It ranks as the world's 18th largest city by scientific research output. It has several higher education institutions, including Shenzhen University and SUSTech. Shenzhen railway station was the last stop on the mainland Chinese section of the Kowloon–Canton Railway.

Shenzhen is a global technology hub, and in the media it is sometimes called China's Silicon Valley. Its culture is entrepreneurial, creative, and competitive, which has led to many small manufacturers and software companies. Several of these firms have grown into large technology companies, such as Huawei, Tencent, DJI, and Oppo. The city is also an important international city. It hosts many national and international events every year, such as the 2011 Summer Universiade and the China Hi-Tech Fair. Shenzhen is home to the main operations of BYD Company, and it is the largest car-manufacturing city in China. Many of its residents are migrants from all over China, and its population is younger than that of most cities in China.

Toponymy

The earliest known mention of the name Shenzhen is from 1410, during the Ming dynasty. However, a market town was not set up in the area until the Qing dynasty. In the local language, Shenzhen means "deep ditch." The words 圳 zhen and 涌 yong are often used for irrigation ditches. In 1978, Xi Zhongxun chose the name for the city. At that time, he was the Party Secretary of Guangdong. He was the father of Xi Jinping, who later became China's top leader.

History

Shenzhen's history goes back thousands of years. The oldest signs of people in the area date to the middle of the Neolithic period. In 214 BC, the area became part of the Nanhai Commandery when Emperor Qin Shi Huang united China under the Qin dynasty. For many centuries, the area was a trading place. In 1669, Bao'an County lost much of its land and was added to Dongguan. After the Opium Wars, Britain gained Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. In 1898, China rented the New Territories to Britain for 99 years. During World War II, Japanese forces took control of Shenzhen.

In 1979, Bao'an County was renamed Shenzhen and became a city that focused on trade with other countries. That same year, the area was chosen as one of the first special economic zones in China. In May 1980, the Central Committee made Shenzhen China's first SEZ. This idea was supported by Deng Xiaoping as part of reform and opening up. In 2010, the zone was expanded to include all of the city's districts. In 2011, Shenzhen hosted the 26th Universiade, an international sports event for university athletes.

Geography

Shenzhen roughly follows the borders of the historical Bao'an County. The southern part of Bao'an County became part of British Hong Kong after the Opium Wars, and the village of Shenzhen was on the border. The Shenzhen railway station was the last stop on the mainland Chinese part of the Kowloon–Canton Railway. Shenzhen's economy grew, and it became a city by 1979. The city is in the Pearl River Delta. It borders Hong Kong to the south, Huizhou to the north and northeast, Dongguan to the north and northwest, Lingdingyang and the Pearl River to the west, and Mirs Bay to the east. It lies about 100 kilometres (62 mi) southeast of the provincial capital, Guangzhou. At the end of 2017, about 12.5 million people lived in the city. The city is 81.4 kilometres long from east to west, and its shortest section from north to south is 10.8 kilometres. It is part of the Pearl River Delta built-up area, which includes Macau and other nearby cities.

Over 160 rivers or channels flow through Shenzhen, and there are 24 reservoirs within the city limits. Notable rivers include the Shenzhen River, Maozhou River and Longgang River. Although Shenzhen is about a degree south of the Tropic of Cancer, the Siberian anticyclone gives it a warm, monsoon-influenced, humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cwa). Winters are mild and fairly dry, partly because of the South China Sea, and frost is very rare. Fog is most common in winter and spring. The rainy season lasts from April until late September or early October. The city gets 1,853 hours of bright sunshine each year. Summers are very humid and hot, but extreme heat is rare. The area also gets heavy rain. Some of this rain comes from typhoons, which strike from the east in summer and early autumn.

Politics

Main article: Politics of Shenzhen

Like all governing institutions in mainland China, Shenzhen has two groups that work side by side: a party and a government. The secretary of the CCP Shenzhen Municipal Committee has more power than the Mayor. The CCP committee makes the main decisions and usually has 12 members, including the secretary. Shenzhen is a sub-provincial city, but as a Special Economic Zone it has more independence from the central government. In 1981, the National People's Congress (NPC) let Shenzhen and other Special Economic Zones make their own laws and rules. Later, the Standing Committee of the NPC approved a decision that let the Shenzhen Municipal People's Congress and the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government make laws for the zone without interference from the central government. Some high-ranking Shenzhen officials were also caught breaking the law through corruption. One example is Xu Zongheng, a former mayor, who was given the death penalty with a two-year reprieve for taking bribes.

Main article: List of administrative divisions of Shenzhen

Shenzhen is directly run by nine administrative Districts and one New District. The area was first Bao'an County. In 1979, the State Council of the People's Republic of China ended the county and created the city of Shenzhen in its place. Over the following years, the districts were changed several times. Areas such as Shekou and Nantou were joined into Nanshan District, and Futian District and Luohu District were formed. Later came Bao'an District, Longgang District, Yantian District, Guangming New District, and Pingshan New District. Longhua New District and Dapeng New District were added in 2011. For a time, a border called the second line, made of barbed wire and checkpoints, separated Shenzhen from the rest of China. It was known in Chinese as the second line. Border controls slowly became weaker, and the second line was removed on 1 July 2010, so the Shenzhen SEZ covered the whole city. In 2011, the province approved a cooperation zone in Shantou, Guangdong, which Shenzhen manages together with Shanwei.

Title	CCP Committee Secretary	SMPC Chairman	Mayor of the SMPG	Shenzhen CPPCC Chairman
Name	Jin Lei	Dai Yunlong	Li Yun	Lin Jie
Ancestral home	Jiyuan, Henan	Huangmei, Hubei	Songzi, Hubei	Yingde, Guangdong
Born	February 1970 (age 56)	August 1960 (age 66)	September 1973 (age 53)	April 1963 (age 63)
Assumed office	March 2026	February 2024	August 2026	September 2020

Administrative divisions of Shenzhen
Futian Luohu Nanshan Yantian Bao'an Longhua Pingshan Longgang Guangming Dapeng
Division code	Division	Area in km2	Population (2020)	Seat	Postal code	Subdivisions
						Subdistricts	Residential communities
440300	Shenzhen	1996.78	17,494,398	Futian	518000	74	775
440303	Luohu	78.75	1,143,801	Huangbei Subdistrict	518000	10	115
440304	Futian	78.65	1,553,225	Shatou Subdistrict	518000	10	115
440305	Nanshan	185.49	1,795,826	Nantou Subdistrict	518000	8	105
440306	Bao'an	398.38	4,476,554	Xin'an Subdistrict	518100	10	123
440307	Longgang*	387.82	3,979,037	Longcheng Subdistrict	518100	11	111
440308	Yantian	74.63	214,225	Haishan Subdistrict	518081	4	23
440309	Longhua	175.58	2,528,872	Guanlan Subdistrict	518110	6	100
440310	Pingshan	167.00	551,333	Pingshan Subdistrict	518118	6	30
440311	Guangming	155.44	1,095,289	Guangming Subdistrict	518107	6	28
	Dapeng	295.05	156,236	Dapeng Subdistrict	518116	3	25
	Qianhai
* — The stats does not includes the subordinated new district. All new district are management areas; not administrative divisions registered under the Ministry of Civil Affairs. * – Dapeng is subordinate to Longgang

Economy

Shenzhen was the first of the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) set up by then leader Deng Xiaoping. In April 1979, Shenzhen became a Special Export Zone. The goal was to attract investment and bring in new technology and management skills. In May 1980, it was renamed a Special Economic Zone.

As of 2022, Shenzhen had a nominal GDP of 3.24 trillion RMB (HK$2.87 trillion). This was more than the economy of nearby Hong Kong and Guangzhou. This made Shenzhen the 3rd largest economy among Chinese cities, after Shanghai and Beijing. Shenzhen's GDP growth between 2016 and 2017 was 8.8%. This was higher than growth in Hong Kong and Singapore. As of 30 November 2018, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) had a market capitalization of US$2.5 trillion. This made it the 8th largest exchange in the world.

In the 2021 Global Financial Centres Index, Shenzhen was ranked the 8th most competitive and largest financial center in the world. It was also ranked 6th in the Oceania region of Asia. As of 2020, the Globalization and World Cities Research Network ranked it as an Alpha (global first-tier) city. According to Forbes, Shenzhen had the fifth-highest number of billionaires of any city in the world. A study by Oxford Economics expects Shenzhen's nominal GDP to be among the world's top 10 largest cities in 2035. It will be in this group with Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Shenzhen is also part of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. This route runs from the Chinese coast through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean. It continues to Trieste in northern Italy, with rail links to Central Europe and the North Sea. As of August 2023, Shenzhen had the seventh-most Fortune Global 500 headquarters of any city in the world.

Industry

Shenzhen's Municipal Bureau of Statistics names four main industries that support the city: high tech, finance, logistics, and culture. Shenzhen is a major center for technology in China and around the world, and many new startup companies are based there. In 2020, it was ranked the 4th Fintech powerhouse in the world.

High tech is the city's best-known industry. In 2015, it was worth 585.491 billion RMB. That was a 13 percent increase and made up 33.4 percent of the city's economy. Well-known tech companies based there include Huawei, Tencent, DJI, and ZTE. Others include the computer maker Hasee, Hytera, and OnePlus. Huaqiangbei is a wholesale hub for gadgets and smartphones. Each year, the city holds the China International High-tech Achievements Fair. The media often call Shenzhen "China's Silicon Valley." The city is also home to BYD Company, which made 2.9 million automobiles in 2024. This makes Shenzhen the largest car manufacturing city in China.

Shenzhen has large banks such as China Merchants Bank, Ping An Insurance, and its subsidiary Ping An Bank. Foreign banks such as Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered, and Bank of East Asia also have offices there. In 2019, Shenzhen was one of the world's top ten financial centers, rising to ninth place.

SF Express and China International Marine Containers (CIMC) have their headquarters in Shenzhen. The Port of Shenzhen includes the Yantian International Container Terminals, the Chiwan Container Terminals, the container terminals of the Shekou Industrial Zone, the China Merchants Port, and Shenzhen Haixing. The port can handle a record amount of containerization. In 2005, it was ranked the world's fourth-busiest container port. In 2021, the port launched its first foreign trade blockchain cargo release platform.

The city has also made culture a priority. In 2008, UNESCO approved Shenzhen's entry into the Creative Cities Network and gave it the title "United Nations Design Capital." The city's video game developer Game Science released Black Myth: Wukong. The game is set against the classic novel Journey to the West and was a big success in 2024. Real estate companies such as Evergrande Group, Vanke, and China Resources Land are based in the city.

In 1996, the Shenzhen High-tech Industrial Development Zone was set up to help grow high tech. In 2010, the government approved the "Overall Development Plan for Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone." This plan aimed to strengthen ties with Hong Kong.

Tourism is also growing. Shenzhen is one of the tier-one cities in China, and its tourism plans aim to make it an international tourist hub. Many attractions belong to Overseas Chinese Town (OCT), which is run by OCT Enterprises. Its parks are rated as an AAAAA scenic area by the China National Tourism Administration. These include the Window of the World, the Splendid China Folk Village, Happy Valley, OCT East, and OCT Harbour. Other sites include the now-closed Minsk World, People's Park, Lianhuashan Park, Zhongshan Park, Wutongshan Park, and the beach at Dameisha.

Tall buildings include the Ping An Finance Centre, KK100, and the Shun Hing Square. Many international hotel brands have hotels in the city, including Mandarin Oriental, Park Hyatt, Raffles, Conrad, Sheraton Hotels, Marriott Hotels, Hilton Hotels, Holiday Inn, and Courtyard by Marriott. The St. Regis Hotels & Resorts occupies the top of KK100.

Retail is an important part of the tertiary sector. Foreign investment (FDI) also goes into wholesale and retail. Areas such as Huaqiang North are known for having one of the largest electronics markets in the world. Luohu Commercial City, next to Shenzhen Railway Station, sells everything from electronics to counterfeit goods.

Shenzhen also has many shopping malls, including COCO Park, its branch in Longgang, and Coastal City. The drugstore chain China Nepstar is also based here. "Smart retail" uses artificial intelligence and big data to sell goods, and it is becoming more popular in the city.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Shenzhen

As of 2020, Shenzhen had about 17.56 million permanent residents. About 5.87 million of them (33.4 percent) were hukou holders, which means they were registered locally. Shenzhen is a young city, so only 5.36 percent of its people were over 60. In 2018, the life expectancy was 81.25. This placed the city among the top twenty cities in China. The male to female ratio was 130 to 100, the largest gap between men and women of any city in Guangdong. The birth rate was also high, with 21.7 babies for every 10,000 people in 2019. Based on its total administrative area, Shenzhen is the fifth most populous city proper in China.

Shenzhen is part of the Pearl River Delta Metropolitan Region. This region includes Guangzhou, Dongguan, Foshan, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Huizhou, Hong Kong, and Macau. According to the World Bank, this region is the largest urban area in the world, with 78 million people in the 2020 census.

Before Shenzhen became a Special Economic Zone in 1980, the area was mostly home to Hakka and Cantonese people. After it was set up, migrants came from across Guangdong, including Teochew people. Others came from southern and central Chinese provinces such as Hunan, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Sichuan, and Henan. Many of them live in urban villages called chengzhongcun ("village in the city"), such as Baishizhou in the Nanshan District. There is also a notable Korean community in Nanshan and the Futian District. These people came to work for South Korean companies that moved to the city when China began reform and opening up.

The main religions are Buddhism and Taoism. Every district has Protestant and Catholic churches, as well as mosques. Shenzhen is also home to the headquarters of the Holy Confucian Church, which was established in 2009.

Before the city became a Special Economic Zone, local people spoke standard Cantonese or the Weitou dialect. Because of migration, the city has shifted toward Mandarin. The Chinese Central Government promotes Mandarin as a national lingua franca. Still, some residents have tried to bring back Cantonese as part of Shenzhen's culture, according to the SCMP.

See also: List of tallest buildings in Shenzhen

Cityscape

The Civic Center at night, with the Ping An Finance Centre to its right, is one of the city's best-known views. It is in the Central District. The building was designed by Lee | Timchula Architects and was the main focal point of the city plan.

In 2019, The Guardian called Shenzhen "the world leader completing new skyscrapers." The city has the second most buildings above 150 meters in the world, after Hong Kong. Most of its skyscrapers were built by architects from Hong Kong or other countries, in a modern style. Some were built in functionalism style, which was popular in the late 20th century. Examples include the Guomao Building, Shun Hing Square, KK100, the China Resources Headquarters, and the Ping An Finance Centre. The Ping An Finance Centre is the second tallest building in China and the fifth tallest building in the world. Shenzhen also has historic buildings in traditional Chinese architecture. These include the Hakka walled villages of Crane Lake and Gangeng in the Longgang District. Nantou, in the Nanshan District, has buildings from the Ming dynasty. Chiwan has the tomb of Zhao Bing, the last emperor of the Southern Song. It also has a temple that Zheng He built as an offering to Mazu to protect the Ming treasure fleet. In 2023, the Marisfrolg Pavilion was completed as a new landmark in the Longhua District.

Education and research

Main article: Education in Shenzhen

Before the 1980s, Shenzhen had primary schools and a small number of secondary schools. No residents could go to university. After Shenzhen became a special economic zone in the 1980s, many people moved to the city, and more jobs needed a university education. By the mid-1980s, the city needed higher education schools because more students were finishing upper secondary school. Shenzhen Normal School opened in 1983 to train primary school teachers. That same year, the State Council approved Shenzhen University, the city's first full-time comprehensive college. Later, the Southern University of Science and Technology was started in 2011, and the Shenzhen Technology University in 2018. Other universities, including the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Harbin Institute of Technology, and Moscow State University, have opened campuses in the city. As of 2025, Shenzhen ranks 18th in the world for scientific research output among cities.

Getting a good primary education depends on whether parents can get their children hukou, which is a kind of city registration. In Shenzhen, it depends on the parents' birth, education, and marriage. In 2020, 33% of residents had hukou. Nine years of compulsory education are free. For secondary school, many parents try to get their children into one of Shenzhen's four well-known schools: Shenzhen Middle School, Shenzhen Experimental School, Shenzhen Foreign Languages School, and Shenzhen High School. These schools admit about 10% of students with hukou and 2% of students without it. As of 2024, Shenzhen has 14 higher education institutions, 554 general secondary schools, 359 primary schools, and 1,973 preschools. Laurie Chen of the South China Morning Post said that Shenzhen, which had 15 million people in 2019, had not built enough primary and secondary schools compared with similar cities in China. Chen compared it with Guangzhou, which had 961 primary schools, while Shenzhen had 344, and 17,000 more primary school teachers. Chen noted that the two cities have similar populations. In response, Shenzhen schools began raising salaries for prospective teachers.

Transport

Main article: Transport in Shenzhen

Shenzhen is the second largest transportation hub in Guangdong and South China. Only the provincial capital, Guangzhou, is bigger. The city has a large public transport system. It includes rapid transit, buses, and taxis. Most of these can be paid for with a Shenzhen Tong card or with QR codes from WeChat mini programs. Shenzhen is the first major city in the world to use only electric buses and taxis. As of 2023, 70% of cars in Shenzhen were electric vehicles.

The Shenzhen Metro is the city's rapid transit system. It also runs a tram system in the Longhua District. Seven inter-city railway stations serve the city. Several high-speed rail lines pass through it, including the Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link, the Beijing–Guangzhou high-speed railway, and the Xiamen–Shenzhen railway. Shenzhen is also connected to China's expressway system. Its expressways include parts of the G94 Pearl River Delta Ring Expressway and the G15 Shenhai Expressway.

Shenzhen was not chosen to be part of the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge. So it is building its own bridge across the Pearl River Delta to connect to Zhongshan.

Shenzhen has its own airport, the Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport. It is also near the Hong Kong International Airport. The Shenzhen airport is 35 kilometres (22 miles) from the city center. It is the main hub for Shenzhen Airlines, Donghai Airlines, Jade Cargo International, SF Airlines, and UPS Airlines. In 2018, it handled 49,348,950 passengers. This made it the 5th busiest airport in China for passenger traffic.

Ferries leave from the Shekou Cruise Centre and the Fuyong Ferry Terminal. They travel to the Skypier at Hong Kong International Airport.

The Port of Shenzhen is the third busiest container port in the world. In 2018, it handled 27.7 million TEUs. Because it is so close to Hong Kong, Shenzhen has China's busiest border crossings. Travelers use the Shenzhen Bay Port, Futian Port, Huanggang Port, Man Kam To Port, and Luohu Port.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Shenzhen

Shenzhen is in Guangdong, so the city had a Cantonese culture before it became a special economic zone. The city's fast-moving way of working is known as "Shenzhen speed." The name comes from how quickly the city's tallest building was built. In 2003, the city government announced plans to make Shenzhen a cultural city through design, animation, and library building. The plans also included growing cultural industries under the 13th Five-Year Plan. Shenzhen is one of China's largest makers of handicrafts. It is also a center for oil painting, especially in places such as Dafen Village. The city was given the title "United Nations Design Capital" by UNESCO. In December 2008, it joined the Creative Cities Network.

Shenzhen's "Library City" plan started in 2003. It aims to build a library network across the city. By the end of 2015, Shenzhen had 620 public libraries, including the Shenzhen Library. The city's best-known bookstore is Shenzhen Book City in the Futian District. Shenzhen also has museums, such as the Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning and the He Xiangning Art Museum. It also has theaters, like the Shenzhen Concert Hall. Students at Shenzhen's primary and secondary schools wear a citywide school uniform. It is blue and white and is a well-known example of Chinese student uniforms.

Food

The main cuisine of Shenzhen is Cantonese. Many people have moved to the city in recent years, so Shenzhen also offers other cuisines, including Teochew cuisine, Hakka cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, Shanghai cuisine, and Hunan cuisine. The Yantian District is known for its seafood, which is based on Teochew and Hakka cooking. Restaurants line the coastline there. You can also find street food, such as Xinjiang cuisine and black sesame soups, on Xijie Street and in the urban village of Baishizhou. The Shekou area in Nanshan District was the first 'Reform and Opening Up' area in China. It has many older local restaurants where people can enjoy different kinds of food.

The first McDonald's restaurant in mainland China opened in Shenzhen's Luohu District on 8 October 1990. It brought American fast food to the city. Today, you can find McDonald's all over Shenzhen. The city also has its own tea culture. It is home to the Hey Tea chain of tea shops, which sells many kinds of cheese and fruit teas. In 2020, Shenzhen passed a law that banned eating cats, dogs, and wildlife. It was the first city in China to make a law that stops people from eating cats and dogs.

Nightlife

Shenzhen has a lively nightlife scene. Most of the activity happens in the entertainment areas of COCO Park and Shekou. The South China Morning Post (SCMP) calls COCO Park "Shenzhen's answer to Lan Kwai Fong". Many bars and clubs stay open until morning, and most are not regulated. Tunnel raves, which the SCMP calls "a Shenzhen nightlife staple", are well known around the world, but police often stop them.

Police have also worked to close some entertainment businesses in Shenzhen. In the mid-2000s, a large police operation took place in Shazui (沙嘴村) in the Futian District. Many businesses there closed, and fewer foreign tourists visited that part of the city.

Sports

Shenzhen has several professional sports teams. These include the Shenzhen Leopards of the Chinese Basketball Association and Shenzhen Peng City F.C of the Chinese Super League. Other teams are Shenzhen Ledman F.C. of China League Two, which was disbanded in 2018, and the Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays of the Zhenskaya Hockey League.

Shenzhen has hosted many international sports events. In August 2011, the city hosted the 26th Summer Universiade, a multi-sport event for university students. In 2018, it hosted a pre-season National Hockey League game between the Calgary Flames and Boston Bruins. From 2019 to 2028, Shenzhen is hosting the WTA Finals, the season-ending championship for women's tennis. The city is also one of the host cities of the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup. Skateboarders from around the world visit Shenzhen for its buildings and its relaxed skate rules. The city has several sports venues, including Shenzhen Stadium in the Futian District. This stadium was the home of Shenzhen F.C. until the club was dissolved in 2024. For the 2011 Summer Universiade, Shenzhen built venues such as the Shenzhen Bay Sports Center in the Nanshan District and the Shenzhen Universiade Sports Centre in the Longgang District.

One of the most special sporting events in Shenzhen is RoboMaster. It is a yearly university robot competition started and run by DJI. The robots take part in autonomous moving target shooting. The competition began in 2015. It added a 5-on-5 MOBA-style robot combat between university students from across China and later from around the world. Winners can receive a prize pool of 3,750,000 RMB and a job opportunity at DJI.

Environment

Main article: List of parks in Shenzhen

In 2006, Shenzhen set up a public park system with three levels: natural parks, urban parks, and community parks. By 2019, the city had 1,090 parks. According to the state-owned news outlet Xinhua, Shenzhen plans to build or renovate more than 40 parks each year, reaching 1,500 parks by 2035. Parks include Lianhuashan Park in the Futian District, which has a six-metre bronze statue of Deng Xiaoping on its hill. Wutongshan National Park surrounds the mountain of the same name in the Luohu District. Shenzhen Bay Park runs along the coast, and many birds visit the nearby mangroves. The city also has the Shenzhen Safari Park and beaches such as Dameisha in the Yantian District and Xichong in the Dapeng Peninsula. The beaches are near the Dapeng New District, which is run by the Longgang District.

See also: Pollution in China

In 2014, Shenzhen had serious water pollution. 173 of its 310 rivers were in "critical" condition. From 2000 to 2014, the city spent 30 billion RMB to clean up its rivers. It built sewage treatment plants and laid thousands of kilometres of sewage pipes. The Swiss environmental technology company IQAir said most of the city's air pollution came from industry, coal use, and traffic. In 2009, Shenzhen was chosen as one of thirteen cities to test a national new-energy vehicle program. By early 2019, the city had an all-electric taxi fleet, with 99% of taxis running on electricity. In late 2019, Shenzhen began a garbage sorting program with four categories: recyclables, kitchen waste, hazardous waste, and other waste.

Media

Shenzhen has 14 newspapers, one main publishing house, and three publishing houses that make video and audio products. It also has 88 offices for inland and Hong Kong media groups, 40 magazines, and about 200 kinds of in-house publications. Most of these in-house publications belong to companies. The best-known media companies in Shenzhen are the Shenzhen Media Group, the Shenzhen Press Group, China Entertainment Television (CETV), and the Phoenix Television branch iFeng.

Shenzhen News is a Chinese-language newspaper owned by the Shenzhen Press Group. It is Shenzhen's main online news source. Shenzhen Daily is an English-language news outlet that covers local, national, and international news. That's Shenzhen is the Shenzhen edition of That's PRD, an English-language media company that works online, in print, and on social media. ShekouDaily.com is an online outlet that shares news and resources about the Shekou sub-district in Nanshan District of Shenzhen.

Relations with Hong Kong

The land that Shenzhen and Hong Kong now cover was once part of Bao'an County in imperial times. After the Qing lost the Second Opium War, the United Kingdom took Hong Kong Island and was leased the New Territories. This created the border between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Shenzhen is the successor to Bao'an. Two bays, Shenzhen Bay and Mirs Bay, and a river, the Sham Chun River, separate the two cities. Leung Chun-ying, who was then a member of the Executive Council, said the cities are close because they are near each other, have similar economies, and have different wages and prices. Hong Kong follows the one country, two systems principle, while Shenzhen is a SEZ.

From 1980, when Shenzhen became a SEZ, until 2007, Hong Kong was Shenzhen's largest trading partner. Exports to Hong Kong made up 46.6% of Shenzhen's total exports. The two cities together set up the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industries Cooperation Zone in the Nanshan District. This is a free-trade zone that follows the economic rules of both cities and brings Hong Kong closer to mainland China. As of September 2016, there were nine crossing points on the border, and six of them were land connections. From west to east, these include the Shenzhen Bay Port, Futian Port, Huanggang Port, Man Kam To Port, Luohu Port and Shatoujiao Port.

Sister cities

Shenzhen has built many sister city relationships. In October 1989, Shenzhen Mayor Li Hao travelled to Houston with a group for a signing ceremony. The ceremony set up a sister city relationship between Houston and Shenzhen, making Houston Shenzhen's first sister city. As of 2015, Shenzhen had sister city relationships with 25 cities around the world. As of May 2021, Shenzhen is twinned with these places:

• Houston, United States, since March 1986
• Plovdiv, Bulgaria, since November 2013
• Brescia, Italy, since November 1991
• Brisbane, Australia, since June 1992
• Poznań, Poland, since July 1993
• Kingston, Jamaica, since March 1995
• Lomé, Togo, since June 1996
• Nuremberg, Germany, since May 1997
• Walloon Brabant, Belgium, since October 2003
• Tsukuba, Japan, since June 2004
• Gwangyang, South Korea, since October 2004
• Johor Bahru, Malaysia, since July 2006
• Perm, Russia, since 2006
• Turin, Italy, since January 2007
• Timișoara, Romania, since February 2007
• Hull, United Kingdom
• Rotherham, United Kingdom, since November 2007
• Luxor, Egypt, since 6 September 2007
• Reno, United States, since 30 April 2008
• Samara, Russia, since 19 December 2008
• Montevideo, Uruguay, since February 2009
• Kalocsa, Hungary, since 2011
• Haifa, Israel, since 2012
• Barcelona, Spain, since July 2012
• Apia, Samoa, since August 2015
• Phnom Penh, Cambodia, since December 2017
• Edinburgh, Scotland, since June 2019

The Shenzhen Port is also twinned with the Port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in Spain. The two ports have agreed to work together since June 2013.