Shenzhen. The New, New City
June 9th, 2008
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.
Entry Filed under: Pre-Departure, Shenzhen, China
12 Comments Add your own
1. Adam Windham | June 11th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
It will be interesting to see how these cities cope with their current mentality of “ultra-expansion” 10, 15, or 20 years down the road. While cities like Beijing and Shenzhen look to rapidly expand and make the 21st century “their century”, U.S cities such as Los Angles are taking and “internal look” when it comes to growth. The “urban sprawl” that just keeps pushing the boundaries of a city farther and farther out has created a situation where there is no identifiable “core” or “center” to many U.S cities. This lack of identity is a major problem facing architects, planners and developers as they look to recapture or create unity among the sprawling mess that these cities have become.
I think that it’s unfortunate that cities such as Beijing, which have so much cultural and architectural heritage, are opting for the massive development/strip mall mentality that many designers in the U.S are trying to avoid. Granted China is in the middle of an unprecedented period of economic growth, and creating these massive projects may be just what the city/country needs and wants. However, I think that once this period is over (nothing can last forever), they will be left with a disjointed, sprawling mess; one that will plague future designers, planners and developers for decades as they try to regain some of the city’s cultural identity that was sacrificed for rapid expansion.
2. Pierre Michael | June 11th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Adam, why does there have to be a lack of identity from urban sprawl? Couldn’t the dispersed nature of cities, with their ample breathing room, be their identifying feature? I am not an architect, but I would think you could only build up for so long; eventually you have to spread out if you want to accommodate more people. I understand that large metropolitan areas could end up merging with other large metropolitan areas, but again, I don’t see the problem, why will the sprawl necessarily dilute their culture? Please enlighten me.
3. Jesse Dundon | June 12th, 2008 at 8:17 am
Wow, that is really cool how the government let many of the citizens keep their own land. I wonder how often developers go in and buy out the citizens, and if they really get fair market value for their land. Does China have any kind of eminent domain law? That is, when it gets down to it, what is to stop the city of Shenzhen from taking large areas of these urban villages for a new skyscraper?
4. Adam Windham | June 12th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Pierre,
What I meant by “Urban Sprawl” is that when cities keep expanding and pushing their boundaries outward, large new developments are usually “out in the middle of no where” in relationship to the “city center”. Like the article said, these new projects are “springing up out of the sand”. With nothing surrounding them, designers and developers look to create some kind of identity for the project. In contrast, when you are building a project surrounded by a lot of existing structures, most designers try to incorporate the exisiting context into the new building so it will “fit in” and establish its connection with the surrounding area (a brick apartment building might look out of place surrounded by a bunch of glass sky-scrappers).
The problem I was referring to was as cities continue to expand outward, the “no man’s land” becomes filled-in with projects that have no real connection among each other, whether it be architecturally, functionally, etc. An ultra-modern high-rise may end up being down the street from a classic looking strip mall. What ends up happening is the city becomes disjointed and “unorganized”. Many US cities have actually taken surveys of its residents on where they think the city center is located, and no one can come up with a definitive answer.
LA is a perfect example of this, the city has continued to expand outward rapidly creating a patchwork of “communities” or areas that have no real connection between each other. Many planners and designers are looking to fix this “problem” by revitalizing older buildings and create that connection, looking “inward” rather than continuing to push development outward.
I’m not saying that cities like Beijing shouldn’t be doing what its doing right now, that is taking advantage of its huge economic boom period to build new infrastructure, high rises, industrial parks, etc. I just feel that they are going to face the same problems that many American cities are facing today.
5. Mark Fairman | June 12th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
It is unfortunate that we won’t be able to visit Shenzhen this year. The video did a great job depicting what I would imagine is quite common for many village-to-city transformations throughout China. I agree that it is difficult to maintain the integrity of “place” when building and expanding at such amazing rates, and it is important to maintain the sense of “what was there before” whenever new construction is considered. I think Shenzhen was able to incorporate some of this into the new city with the allowance of existing home owners to keep their land. This local context will invariably influence all new construction to come.
6. Robyn Bowie | June 13th, 2008 at 8:37 am
Wow, Shenzhen has certainly had some amazing growth. Adam, you bring up an interesting point about the urban sprawl. It is very true and one of the reasons I prefer San Francisco over LA - SF has a very distinct downtown because its on such a small area of land and can’t sprawl in the same way as LA. I always find is rather strange when cities don’t have a defined downtown and I agree that it is sad for such cultural cities as Beijing to lose this. It would have been very interesting to see some of China’s “smaller cities” in the South, although I am very much looking forward to seeing India instead.
7. Pierre Michael | June 13th, 2008 at 9:11 am
Thanks Adam
8. Nicholas Dominguez | June 13th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Even as the trip is about to start I feel that I will never be able to comprehend what this Chinese urban boom has done to the fabric of the Chinese society. I cannot imagine a city that has grown to 8 million people in 30 years. That kind of growth almost frightens me as a former city planning undergrad. The changes in the since of community that will take place in these hyper growth Chinese communities would be a fascinating experiment in social studies. It is shame we will not be able to visit Shenzhen before it grows even more and the character of the city is lost to the future.. I am sure many Chinese people feel the same way and they live there.
9. Woon Lam "Justine" Wong | June 13th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Shenzhen is next to Hong Kong, where is a place I used to go a lot when I was younger. We often crossed “the border” and went shopping for cheap products (sometimes fake products). The last time I went there, I shopped for books, because the books in China are really cheap, no matter Chinese or English.
Although it was blur, I remembered the Shenzhen I saw last time was really different than the one I used to know before. Shenzhen has been developed so much, with high resemblance with Hong Kong. I hope Imay have chance to visit this place again soon, though may not through our trip.
Each part of China “grows” differently with its own “mini culture” , and I think we can learn something wherever we go.
10. Lonnie | June 16th, 2008 at 9:13 am
did you know there is an active coalition, and they made their thoughts known at the last congress, that hopes to make Shenzhen part of Hong Kong?
11. Chris Carr | June 16th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Hi Lonnie.
Nope. Did not know that. Interesting. A formal Hong Kong-Shenzhen link would be an incredibly powerful one-two punch.
12. Mike | July 19th, 2008 at 9:51 am
This is constant talk about connecting the 2 cities into one “mega city” within the next 20 years (i think that time frame is correct). There is already talk about allowing Shenzhen locals (people who have hukou here) to have easier access to Hong Kong, a train linking the 2 airports that only has a 20 min link and other possible joint projects.
The police departments are even working together to catch smugglers going back and forth (and who are even tunneling stuff underground).
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