Geographical location
Located in the southern part of Guangdong Province, Shenzhen occupies an area of 1,952.84 square kilometers. It has six administrative districts, namely Luohu, Futian, Nanshan, Yantian, Bao'an and Longgang. The Shenzhen River divides Shenzhen and Hong Kong, its neighbor in the south. With a 229.96-km coastline, Shenzhen is rich in aquatic resources besides boasting good seaports facing the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean. So far, it has built nine commercial port areas. The mild subtropical oceanic climate brings the city ample rain. With an average temperature at 22.4 degrees Celsius, Shenzhen is a pleasant place to live and an attractive tourism destination. The city abounds in fruits like litchi and longan.

History
Since it was designated an economic special zone in 1980, Shenzhen has gradually grown into a modern metropolis with per capita GDP topping other mainland cities. The economy has been growing at an annual 26.9 percent each year. A "lab" for the country's reform and opening-up policy, it has led the country in setting up a fairly complete market system. In 2006, Shenzhen's total foreign trade volume reached US$287.53 billion, ranking first among mainland cities for the 15th year in a row. Merchants from more than 90 countries and regions have invested in Shenzhen.
With close economic and cultural bonds between the city and other parts of the world, Shenzhen serves as China's main portal to the world. Since 1986, it has formed sister-city ties with 11 foreign cities including Houston in the United States, Brisbane in Australia, Nuremberg in Germany, Poznan in Poland and Vienna in France.

Population
About 13 million people live in Shenzhen, of whom 98 percent are migrants. More than 360,000 are ethnic minorities, coming from China's 56 ethnic minorities. Most people speak mandarin while the majority of the city's public institutions and business entities also offer English service. Many young people speak English and some professionals are well versed in foreign languages.

Pillar industries
High technology, finance, logistics and culture make up the four pillar industries of Shenzhen. There are more than 30,000 high-tech companies in the city. With the biggest number of patents applied nationally and internationally, Shenzhen has the most advanced computer software, telecom, microelectronics and audio-video sectors among mainland cities. The China Hi-Tech Fair (CHTF) has been held nine times in Shenzhen. A modern logistics center, the city's logistics enterprises turned over an output of 137.4 billion yuan in 2006.
With widely distributed banks, securities firms and insurance institutions from home and abroad, Shenzhen is aiming to become an international finance center by 2010. With leading printing, media and tourism industries in China, the city is thriving in cultural industries. The China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industry Fair, held in the city in May each year, offers a platform to promote Chinese cultural products to the outside world.
Ports and transportation
A total of 17 ports － the most compared with other mainland cities － link Shenzhen with the outside world. Nine commercial ports are sprawled 15 kilometers along the city's coastline, from where more than 40 world shipping companies sail on more than 150 container transport routes. The turnover volume of containers in the Shenzhen ports is fourth in the world. The number of passengers using Shenzhen International Airport is fourth among Chinese cities. The Beijing-Guangzhou Railway and the Beijing-Kowloon Railway converge in Shenzhen, making it an important hub of railroad transport. The city's first Metro line was opened in 2004.

Link with Hong Kong
Shenzhen has a close bond with Hong Kong, its next-door neighbor. Shenzhen supplies the majority of the poultry, eggs, fish, meat and dairy products to the Hong Kong market. It also supplies more than 1.1 billion cubic meters of drinking water consumed by Hong Kongers. The Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant of Shenzhen provides electricity for Hong Kong. Hong Kong firms have always been the most important investors in Shenzhen and many Shenzhen firms have been listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange. With the view of a mega-metropolis formed by the two cities in the future, Shenzhen is considering this trend in its long-term plans.

Environmental protection
The Shenzhen government has given environmental protection much attention since the city was established. This is to ensure that its citizens will have safe, clean and fresh air, water and food. Most of the city's daily garbage, 93.7 percent, has been neutralized. With 442 community parks and natural resorts, the city has greenery covering 45 percent of its urban districts and forests occupying 47 percent of its total area. Each citizen is entitled to 16.01 square meters of public greenery. Shenzhen was named a world "Garden City" in 2000, the first Chinese city to receive this title. In 2004, the city government began to issue a green award to citizens who make a major contribution to environmental protection. Between 2006 and 2010, the city plans to invest 25 billion yuan into 294 projects to treat pollution in 10 areas.

The largest, youngest city of migrants
The overwhelming majority of Shenzhen residents are migrants and the influx of migrants is continuing. Shenzhen is also one of the only two Chinese cities that have residents from the country's 56 ethnic groups.
The 28-year-old Shenzhen is a young city, and a city of young people, with the average age being 30.8. Shenzhen is also a city with well-educated residents, having one-sixth of the country's PhDs. The proportion of residents having a higher education background ranks it among the first in the country. Good development opportunities, effective incentive mechanisms and a high-quality living environment are the reasons why the city is still attracting talented people from home and abroad. In the past two decades, Shenzhen has educated or attracted 600,000 Chinese and overseas professionals.
Shenzhen, as a city of migrants, has created a culture of migrants. Different cultural backgrounds and identities forge the characteristics unique to a society of migrants: youthfulness, vigor, mobility, tolerance and pluralism. As a neighbor of Hong Kong, Shenzhen is prone to the influence of the Hong Kong and Taiwan cultures and Western culture. The exchange and convergence of different cultures, like Oriental and Western cultures, modern and traditional cultures, coastal and continental cultures, lead to the openness, tolerance and creativeness of Shenzhen's culture. Creative awareness comes with the city.

International metropolis
As the only Chinese mainland city with sea, land and air ports, Shenzhen has become the world's fourth-largest shipping container port; China's fourth-largest tourist city; an important high-tech, logistics and financial center in Southeast Asia; the fastest-growing economy in China; and a pioneer of Chinese modernization. A large number of multinational companies have invested in Shenzhen which has more than 120 firms funded by Fortune 500 companies. Shenzhen has become the manufacturing base, purchasing center and service center for multinationals.
Shenzhen's advanced high-tech industries and export-oriented economy, and the numerous multinationals and foreign-related institutions mean the demand for talented people from around the world is strong. In 2006, the city introduced more than 70,000 overseas experts, while the all-time figure reached more than 340,000. The number of overseas Chinese students who returned home to settle down in Shenzhen has topped 1,000 each year for six consecutive years, and the all-time total has surpassed 10,000. Shenzhen successfully hosted the 2007 Conference on International Exchange of Professionals at the end of November 2007.
Aiming to build "an international city with Chinese characteristics and styles," Shenzhen has laid down sound foundations for becoming an international city in terms of economy, culture, science and technology, geography, and people's thinking. Neighboring Hong Kong and having China's busiest land checkpoint, Shenzhen once saw 65 percent of the country's cross-border passenger flow. The import and export volume of Shenzhen has topped Chinese cities for many years running. Geographic advantages are bringing profound cultural influences to Shenzhen. Through Hong Kong, the Hong Kong and Taiwan cultures and overseas cultures make their way to Shenzhen and then spread to inland cities. Also with the status as the "window" of China's opening-up drive, Shenzhen has in fact become the convergence of excellent cultures of China and the West. In tandem with surging economic growth, Shenzhen's cultural industry and undertakings have taken great stride forward. Shenzhen is implementing the strategy of becoming a "culture-based city." On one hand, the cultural industry has become a new economic growth engine, and the city's comprehensive strength is rising steadily. One the other hand, Shenzhen's open, pluralist and modern culture, and wide-ranging cooperation with Hong Kong are making Shenzhen not only influential in China but also abroad. Shenzhen and its people aspire to "let the world understand Shenzhen, and make Shenzhen a world city."
Shenzhen ranked the first among Chinese cities on the list of growth competitiveness published in 2006 by Hong Kong nongovernmental think tank Chinese Cities Competitiveness Research Society. The list also included Shenzhen as one of "China's top 10 international cities."

Livability: "Nations in Bloom" winner
Shenzhen is a beautiful garden-like city, an ideal place for living and tourism. Shenzhen became the first Chinese city to win first place in the category of the most-populated cities (with a population of 1 million) in the "Nations in Bloom" competition in Washington, D.C., the United States, in 2000, beating 32 other cities from 19 countries.
For nearly 30 years since its establishment, the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone has stuck to the coordinated development of human beings and nature, taking a path of green development. It took the lead in China to make the first local regulation on the development of recycling economy, using legislation to secure sustainable economic growth. By carrying out reasonable urban planning, building an environment-friendly city, and fostering resident's identification with the city, Shenzhen has maintained a good environment even as the economy grew miraculously, becoming a model for the world's fast growing cities in achieving both economic and environmental successes. Shenzhen has won honors including the titles of "National Clean City," "State Model City for Environmental Protection," "National Excellent Tourist City," "Abercrombie Award for Urban Planning," "National Model City for Greening," "UNEP Global 500," "National Civilized City," "Model City for Protecting the Ozone Layer" and the United Nations' "Habitat Scroll of Honor Award." At present, Shenzhen has a green coverage of 976.4 square kilometers, with the green coverage ratio reaching 50 percent. The green coverage of developed areas is 320.85 square kilometers, with the green coverage ratio reaching 45 percent. The per capita public green space in developed areas is 16.1 square meters, with green land ratio for developed areas reaching 39.1 percent. About 89.28 percent of water in functioning zones is up to standard. About 71.5 percent of wastewater is treated while 90 percent of daily garbage is treated in an environment-friendly way. Shenzhen has become a "green city" worthy of the name.
In November 2005, the Shenzhen Municipal Government published the basic ecological control lines and promulgated relevant rules, becoming the first Chinese city to do so. About 49.88 percent of the city's land is within the control lines, and is off-limits to development except for the construction of public utility and tourism facilities.

A city of high technology
Shenzhen thrived on foreign-trade-related processing industries when it was first established as a municipality in 1979. In the 1990s, the municipal government made the decision to foster high-tech industries that would consume less energy, cause less pollution and turn out more added value. Today, high-tech sectors are the most important part of the city's economy.
The IT-related sectors, namely computer, mobile phone and software, have undergone rapid development. In 2007, the output value of high-tech products totaled 759.8 billion yuan, ranking first in the country's large and medium-sized cities. The added value of high-tech products reached 180.8 billion yuan, up 29.18 percent over the previous year and comprising 31.39 percent of the city's GDP. More than half of the high-tech products, worth 370.8 billion yuan, had their own intellectual property rights and accounted for 58.92 percent of the output value of all high-tech products. The number of patent applications submitted by Shenzhen firms and individuals has seen a quick growth, as has the number of inventions. In 2007, Shenzhen submitted a total of 35,808 patent applications, an increase of 20 percent over the previous year. PCT international application also topped mainland cities in 2007. Shenzhen also tops mainland cities in the number of famous national brands and international brands produced. The Shenzhen High-tech Industrial Park turns out 11.9 billion yuan worth of industrial products on every square kilometer of land, the highest in China.
The first China Hi-Tech Fair (CHTF) was cosponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic cooperation, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Information Industry, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Shenzhen Municipal Government. The annual fair has been held for nine years since, drawing an increasing number of exhibitors and visitors each year seeing the number of cosponsors growing from the original five to more than 10. The only State-level trade fair for new and high technologies and products, the fair has offered a trading platform for research centers, transnational companies, venture capitals and start-up firms.
To make up for the shortage in science and technological resources, Shenzhen has created a virtual university campus to draw scores of top Chinese universities to open research centers in the city. The CAS has also launched an advanced technology research institute in Nanshan District. In the newly built University Town, nine national key labs under three top Chinese universities are in the plan. All these will help Shenzhen to materialize high technologies and upgrade its industries.

A clean and efficient government
Shenzhen has tried to build a clean and efficient government. Residents can dial 12345 to consult or lodge complaints with 56 government departments and agencies. The hotline system, costing 32 million yuan, offers 24-hour services in Putonghua, Cantonese, English and several other languages. The lobby at Shenzhen Citizen's Center, the city's council hall, offers one-stop services like registrations and license applications to various governmental departments. Electronic monitors are installed behind each service window so that the whole process of license applications can be recorded for further investigation. Applications for 239 administrative permits to 38 government departments are monitored by the system.
The government has undertaken four reforms concerning administrative permits to improve efficiency. Some previous mandatory permits were canceled. The time needed to get the go-ahead for big investment projects has been reduced by more than 60 percent after such reforms.
The government has also tried to tighten supervision so that administrative powers are limited, expenses audited and services evaluated. The city has launched the "Accountability Storm" to improve efficiency, which includes a series of new rules on executive officials' accountability, administrative permits issuers' accountability and punishments for unscrupulous civil servants. The government has also completed a guidebook for evaluating the performances of its departments, taking into account overall performance, efficiency, ability in management and administrative costs.