Shenzhen is one of my favorite cities in China. Some find it too overwhelming, new, crass and “sterile”. One reason I like the place is that some of the first friends I made in China live and do business in Shenzhen. I also like its business energy and entrepreneurialism — the wild west mentality of the place, even with its warts and all, fascinates me. The reason it is repulsive to some is the very reason I like to visit this place in southern China.

The NY Times just ran a nice article on Shenzhen, with photo feature. Click HERE for the article and HERE for the pics and short narrative. The students with an architecture background in our program will especially enjoy these pics and the discussion.

Due to the India addition to the trip, we unfortunately won’t have time to visit Shenzhen this year, but in my view, it is one of China’s faces that you should try to see sometime (sooner rather than later) in your business and travel career. Doing so will help you reach a deeper understanding of China.

The money quote in the video feature noted above is right on: Shenzhen is an echo of our own past. You look at it and see what the US did and could do in the 1920s and 1930s and post WWII when it pursued its own massive building of infrastructure and cities (things we can’t really do anymore for a plethora of reasons).

That is exactly one of the feelings I get each time I visit and experience Shenzhen.

For some informative blogs on what’s happening on the ground Shenzhen, see: Shenzhen Undercover and Shenzhen Fieldnotes

See also this related National Geographic pictorial on China’s Instant Cities.