31 Comments Add your own

• 1. Amanda Podesta  |  December 26th, 2010 at 2:11 pm

  I was impressed with really how clever it is for China to use Shenzhen as an experimental playground. There is both good and bad aspects of operating within a country where “the average citizen is willing to tolerate unfairness as long as his living standards improves” (Nat’l Geo).

  Shenzhen comprises of mostly transitory visitors with no history in the area (70% migrants according to WSJ) and no intent to stay longer than necessary. They’re a perfect guinea pig population: they’re fractionalized, not terribly educated (80% with <8 yrs. education according to Nat’l Geo) and as migrants have already signaled to the government that they’re willing to socially adapt.

  In the Nat’l Geo article, interesting how the Chinese factories (e.g. Lishui Undergarments company) are looking forward and trying to find products with a specialized process. … and also that “feng shui experts” got mentioned twice in the article.

• 2. Dan N  |  December 27th, 2010 at 7:33 pm

  I’ve always been fascinated by urban planning and development. When I lived and studied in San Francisco as an undergraduate, we spent a great deal of time talking about urban design and its impact on the health of a city. I’m no expert but I do know that the designers of today’s “instant cities” are facing daunting challenges. We won’t be able to measure their success in designing these built environments for decades. Most of us just don’t consider the permanence and importance of the decisions that they are making. Urban developments have payback periods of 50 years or more so the importance of designing spaces that will be desirable that far down the road is critical.

  What concerns me is the speed at which these decisions are being made today in China and the Middle East. Things are moving so fast that architects don’t have time to really think about the long term consequences of their decisions. They are now racing to create something novel rather then timeless. They are more focused on shaving a few months off the building design and construction schedule rather then designing and constructing a building that will meets society’s needs decades from now. Today’s fad is tomorrow’s junk, and this doesn’t bode well when the medium of expression is concrete and steel.

  I am thrilled by the opportunity to see what is happening to Chinese cityscapes first hand. I’ll never forget walking out of the Beijing train station in 1989 and seeing the Beijing International Hotel towering over the city just two blocks away. We were miserable from our 48-hour marathon train ride from Shenzhen to Beijing and the hotel was like an oasis in the desert. I wonder whether I’ll even be able to spot it on today’s Beijing skyline…

• 3. David Hart  |  January 9th, 2011 at 4:08 pm

  Shenzhen is a remarkable city. It seems to represent the economic changes that have taken place in China the past few years. I must admit, before I signed up for this course, I knew a little about Shanghai and Beijing, but had never heard of Shenzhen. I have really enjoyed learning about this city and look forward to visiting it.

  I am looking forward to seeing the modern infrastructure. Usually when I think of big cities, I think of their history and picture a mix of older and newer buildings. With much of Shenzhen being built in the past three decades, I am curious to see what it looks like.

  The photos and articles in this blog post do a good job of giving us an overview of the city. With such a turnover in population, it will be interesting to see how Shenzhen develops a sense of identity and culture. There certainly is no shortage of activity. It will be also interesting to see firsthand how the architecture compares to other world cities.

  The experiment of Shenzhen is ongoing. I think the government picked a good location. It is right next to the bustling hub of Hong Kong. I think it is a good thing to decentralize some of the goverment responsibilties. We will see how this works in a place like Shenzhen.

• 4. Katie Moeller  |  January 10th, 2011 at 2:45 pm

  According to the PBS feature about Wal-Mart, Shenzhen was rice fields 20 years ago. Now it is the backbone for young Chinese to work and live in. It is the symbol of opportunity that China wants, a future where anything is possible. Potentially being able to meet the idea of the 21st century is going to be their century.

  Seeing the pictures of Shenzhen also reminded me of Postcards from Tomorrow Square. China is cheap because they are fast. Seeing the proximity of the buildings, I can really see now that the factories are very close and can deliver any raw materials in a moment’s notice - “handshake” buildings. The city is connected and ready for the future. The land is their playground to build what they need and to lead the wave of the future.

• 5. Cassie Bettencourt  |  January 14th, 2011 at 2:56 pm

  Echoing some of the previous comments, Shenzhen seems to embody much of the economic development China has experienced in the last 20 years. I agree with the idea that the “wild west mentality” of Shenzhen is reminiscent of America’s western development.

  Before even reading the NY Times article, Dubai immediately came to mind as I started to think about an instant city. Cities like Shenzhen and Dubai are the cities of tomorrow, whether we, as Americans, like it or not. The comment in the NY Times article about how America is backward looking when it comes to its cities rang true to me. Re-doing a stretch of freeway or upgrading a subway line in America is both rare and a big deal when it actually occurs. This made me think of the inefficient reputation that CalTrans has.

  I found the architectural comments in the video interesting as well. The idea of a linear city instead of a city with no dense historical context, I believe, is a product of the “instant” factor of these new cities. It’s almost as if all portions of the city arose simultaneously giving the “urban villages” lives of their own. It will be fascinating to visit Shenzhen and get away from China’s history and really get a sense of what is happening in China right now.

• 6. Brady Haug  |  January 24th, 2011 at 10:45 pm

  To compare the rapid urban growth in Shenzhen to that of the United State’s rapid building of the interstate highway system is wrong. The growth of the instant city, in such places as Shenzhen and Dubai, is a display of remarkable feats in engineering and construction. In my opinion it is a far greater feat than the growth of the US in the 1920s, 1930s, and post WWII eras. Just as Reiser mentioned, it appears to me that one size does not fit all and that each of these instant cities is unique. The photo slideshow gave me an interesting visual into the city. The layout of the city vaguely reminded me of the slums in Rio De Janeiro. (http://thefreedomproject.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/rio-de-janeiro-slums.jpg). Shenzhen is growing at remarkable speeds and displays an unrivalled skyline, but there are still poverty stricken areas. I found these Urban Villages referenced in the article and slideshow to be the most interesting part. Personally I would love to drive or walk through one of these villages while we are in Shenzhen. To me, these areas are where you find the true culture of a city.
  The quote from the article that I thought best described Shenzhen is as follows, “But if Shenzhen is an emblem of what can happen when free-market capitalism is allowed to run amok, it is also an example of the spontaneous creativity that occurs when people are left to fend for themselves.” Just as Amanda and Katie have mentioned, Shenzhen is an interesting city because it is utilized like an experimental playground.

• 7. Robbin Forsyth  |  January 27th, 2011 at 8:18 pm

  Shenzhen is a remarkable growth story. I cannot compare it to the growth in the US during the first half of the twentieth century because I was not there. However, I have been to Shenzhen in the early 2000’s and I am looking forward to going back in June. During my previous visits the city was different every visited. Nowhere else have I seen the strange mix of brand new buildings juxtaposed against what looks like out building. That is until you look closely at the “old” buildings and realized that they couldn’t be more than a couple of year old. The city literally wears things out at an accelerated pace because of the frenetic pace of activity. The talk about Modernist or Post Modernist intent to urban planning is fun to read, but I don’t believe there is any real planning to the city. In my experience, Shenzhen is by and large a city of independent projects built next to each other. As land becomes available, the sprawl continues outward. As things wear out they are torn down or literally built on top of.
  I did not know about the experimental government model before reading the WSJ article. The “small government, big society” model of streamlining and lightening the bureaucracy seems to be ideal for this city. I would like to know more statistics comparing the size of government of Shenzhen to a more traditional model like Beijing.
  It does seems ironic that the CCP is now considering social welfare programs such as the daycare provided by the Ciwei Philanthropy Institute is “small government for a big society”? Only through the taxation of capitalist enterprises can the communist party can provide for the needs of the workers. In addition to that, the CCP wants to outsource the responsibility. I believe this is ultimately that this kind of experimentation is good, but it shows the CCP has intent to create a new socialist model. If done correctly it could allow the CCP the opportunity to remain in control of the country without a large amount of democratic reform.
  If Shenzhen is the future of China, we will need a new name for CCP ideology.

• 8. Jessica Shayler  |  January 28th, 2011 at 4:43 pm

  This post and the associated articles increased my enthusiasm for the trip in general and Shenzhen specifically. The WSJ article gave the same impression that Susan Shirk’s book is giving me: the Communist Party officials are trying really hard to employ the best strategy to remain in power (vs. retaining power through brute force alone). By keeping a finger on the pulse of Shenzhen, party officials should be able to see if a “smarter, leaner form of authoritarian rule” should be the future of China or if the critics are right in “fearing that social organizations could challenge party rule.” I suppose time will tell; it is exciting to be able to witness such a development. I feel it would take a massive revolution (unlikely) for any major change in American government to take place. Party officials in China have the opportunity to choose a new direction for how they run the government. Let’s hope they make positive choices.

• 9. Kristine Spencer  |  February 3rd, 2011 at 11:59 pm

  These articles made me realize how different every city that we will travel to will be. The government using Schenzen as an experiment seems like a good tactic to try out their new strategies in an effort to maintain control and stay in power. Schenzen is clearly open to these changes, from being the first city open to foreigners, to the “small government, big city” experiment. The actual layout of the city fascinated me; the idea of the “urban village” is not anything new in a sense, and neighborhoods and areas of almost all cities have their own personality, style, styles, or quarters. But they are unique because of the sheer speed in which they were built, and the fact that in the opinion of the author, it is simply not possible for the US to engage in such rapid construction. Once again, these blog posts mention that there are more opportunities in China, even for architects. I thought that it was ironic that in one article, the architect raved about the modern style in China and that the US is too focused on the past. But in the National Geographic article, a huge factory was sketched on a scratch piece of paper in a little over an hour by untrained businessmen. The contrast of these two situations is so foreign to me, and this is one of the things that I see holding China back from becoming the superpower that they want to be. The supporting regulations are simply not there yet. I thought it was interesting that the architects were wondering how to breathe life into the cities that are springing up overnight, and trying to make them feel less ordinary and sterile. I think that mixing old with new gives cities and eclectic and enchanting feel, yet the architects appear to be more focused on modern, modern, modern. The quote that made me ponder the most was about the boom in construction, where the architect wonders “Was it a brief hiatus, and now we are returning to something that has been going on for a long time, or is it something radically different? We are in a condition we don’t understand yet.”

• 10. Sarah Weinzapfel  |  February 7th, 2011 at 3:49 pm

  Out of the three cities we will be visiting, I think I am most excited to visit Shenzhen. I don’t think it’s the city that comes to most peoples’ mind when you think China. It will be exciting to experience this instant city first hand and decide the level of generic ourselves. In the New York Times article the New York architect says we’ve become too back-ward looking and we don’t want anything to look new, we want everything to look old. In a sense that is true. However, I think we have history and old buildings and we don’t want new infrastructure to look like it doesn’t belong. We don’t want it to clash or replace our history. If new buildings go up all done by the same person all at one time, they will stick out like a sore thumb which looks worse than buildings looking “old”. I like to call it character. I thought it was interesting that the video mentioned that the architects are looking to the “urban cities” and neighborhoods where the villagers live to try and capture the unique and rare personality of them. They want to be able to subtly mock that in the city structures so the city doesn’t lack what is so much a part of our “back-ward architecture.”

  I read the “Learning from Las Vegas” for my senior thesis which studied the format of Las Vegas in hopes to analyze urban sprawl. His work was considered groundbreaking, but Holl is right: the rules have to change when it’s something of this size. The scale is immense and almost unimaginable. Our cities’ structures and systems are so completely different that it’s not really relevant to compare.

• 11. Randy Camat  |  February 7th, 2011 at 11:10 pm

  Shenzhen is a very impressive city especially its ability to transform from fishing village with just a few thousand people into a thriving metropolis with millions of residents in just three decades. This rapid rise in development and economy shows how capable China is when it comes to doing the impossible.

  What caught my attention was the density of the urban villages and the close proximity the buildings are to each other. No wonder they are called hand shake buildings. One of the pictures from the video narrated by Nicolai Ouroussoff gives a bird’s eye view of how closely packed these buildings are relative to each other. Another photo (around the one minute mark) shows the view from the streets filled with people, cars, and bicycles. I am very excited in visiting Shenzhen and having a first hand experience and I’m pretty sure it will be an experience. The closest experience I had being in a situation of a crowded marketplace/streets was during my visit to a marketplace in the Philippines, but the environment was only a tiny fraction of what I expect what will happen in China.

• 12. Jason Jay Sharma  |  February 9th, 2011 at 2:27 am

  Shenzhen looks like it will be an exciting city to visit during our trip to China. The pictures narrative proved that Shenzhen is at a constant crossroad between old and new, city versus country-side, etc. I’m looking forward to seeing the new buildings and development mentioned in the accompanying feature–I’m a fan of traditional architecture, but I love to see new and unique structures.

  The combination of the pictures and WSJ article made one thing come to focus, Shenzhen seems to be living by a very different set of rules than other Chinese cities. I found it very interesting that officials allowed the earlier fisherman and farmers in the region to maintain ownership of their land and develop city farms. The officials’ use of “small government, big society” in Shenzhen, I think, is effective for a city with such fast movement, change, development, and use. It’s also a smart move for officials looking to remain in power by being lenient instead of brow-beating the people of key cities to follow the officials. For the citizens of Shenzhen, I can imagine they feel a strong sense of independence and progressiveness as they foray into new political models.

• 13. Jessie Wilkie  |  February 11th, 2011 at 3:02 pm

  I recently just finished participating in a student urban design competition. Our task was to create a proposal for how to develop a 33.5 acre site in Seattle. It was an urban infill project. Although I did the financial part of the competition, I still got to learn a great deal about the urban design and planning. Here in the US development is more regulated and for the sake of the competition, the regulations were eased as far as zoning is concerned. But there were still some height requirements, low income housing requirements, open space requirements, and air rights had to be purchased and so on. Regulations weren’t the only obstacle. The whole process of building costs a lot, a lot of money. I could only imagine how much money has been poured into Shenzhen and other booming cities like it. I also wonder where the money is coming from. Also, Shenzhen has probably experienced such quick and explosive growth because the lack of regulations. No one is having to jump through the hoops of bureaucracy to build like they do in the United States.

  I thought the WSJ article on Shenzhen being an experimental area for the Chinese government was interesting. I’m particularly interested in the 3,500 NGOs in the city. I’m hoping that we, as a business school, will be progressive enough to be able to visit some of these organizations while in Shenzhen. I will be disappointed if we are unable to.

• 14. Ashley Ogden  |  February 11th, 2011 at 3:58 pm

  Everything about this city is insane. To go from a rural fishing community to a huge city of 8 million in just 30 years is incredible. It is no surprise to me that they don’t have a city center, the city had no “blueprint” and was built with very little regulation. It truly is an architectural experiment in which the architects seem to have an “anything goes” type of attitude towards design.

  When you put a city together this rapidly, you are giving up a lot of things. You give up some diversity in the architecture. Architects were building multiple buildings at a time and would only change small things to the design before recreating each one. There was no time to innovate. You also give up a historic center which usually is in the middle of the city and which all American cities usually have. It looks like pretty chaos, but it is really remarkable if you think about it.

• 15. Chris Bruns  |  February 12th, 2011 at 7:53 pm

  I really enjoyed the photo narrative and how they were able to explain some of the differences of Shenzhen and from other traditional cities. The pictures really illustrated how the city hasn’t had the traditional development outwards from a historical center and is ‘linear.’ I also was fascinated by the “urban villages” and how these “handshake building” have been created in a city that has been developed so quickly. I have never really studied much about architecture, but the subject matter discussed and shown was very interesting and I think I was able to understand most of what was written about. However my favorite part was the introduction story of the National Geographic video and the description of how the factory was designed and the quote was given. Having worked construction the whole ordeal was unbelievable that things are built that way. I could see the meeting with Boss and the workers drawing an entire factory in just over an hour, which makes sense with the speed and size of the cities that were written about.

• 16. Tyler Sereno  |  February 15th, 2011 at 3:42 pm

  These articles andf the short narrative with photos made me excited for our trip to China. I am interested to see what these places look like in person. In the article, it was mentioned that China wants everything to look new because they want to own the 21st century, and that the U.S. wants things to look old. This gives architects the ability to do things that they never could do in the U.S. These cities like Shenzhen have become vast fields of urban experimentation. If I were an architect I would want to jump on the opporunity to create something fascinating in China.

  The article briefly describes a Beijing project by Steven Holl that sounded incredible, called the Linked Hybrid. It is one of the most innovative housing complexes in the world. It has eight asymmetrical towers joined by a network of enclosed bridges that create a pedestrian zone in the sky. This sounds amazing.

• 17. Will Moeller  |  February 16th, 2011 at 6:11 pm

  In 2004, one of my economics professors returned from Shezhen with stories of how he’d spend a few minutes each day counting the number of cranes across the city. There were usually between 15 and 20, but the point was they were a permanent fixture for a city that was constantly growing. What I also remember him stressing was that it was not only impressive that China had the resources to build this quickly (the NYT article mentions Dubai is 100 years of construction compressed into 10, and Shenzhen sprouting from a fishing village in 30 years), but these new cities have the added benefit of the advances in architecture and engineering that weren’t around when America was building out. Thus, who was really going to have better infrastructure in the year 2100? The Chinese.

  It makes sense that Shezhen should also be the poster child city of the New China. It has been born out of economic reform and it has prospered. The WSJ article mentions that Shenzhen is populous and progressive. At least from the standpoint of its standing as a major city in China with this reputation, I can’t help but wonder if there are more comparisons to be made between Shenzhen and San Francisco.

  On a different note, if Shenzhen is the New China, it makes me wonder about which cities are still old China. For that matter, it makes me wonder which cities are a mix of old and new. It should be interesting, and I hope our docket includes a good mix.

• 18. Anthony Kallioinen  |  February 21st, 2011 at 12:04 pm

  I am really excited to visit Shenzhen. It will be incredible to see a flourishing city with sub-provisional status that used to be a small fishing village only 40 years ago. Not only this, it is also southern China’s financial center with its own stock exchange and everything – this is mind blowing! It is amazing to me that the Chinese have moved so far from a communist state: first to ‘Socialism with Chinese characteristics,’ all the way to trying market capitalism with the SEZ of Shenzhen. I’m sure that Shenzhen will have some great factories to visit as we travel around China.

  The New York Times article on ‘the architecture issue’ and how the rapid development in China talks about how we are changing the way we design our buildings. The article spoke to architecture giants such as Rem Koolhaas, Steven Holl, and Zaha Hadid, getting their perspective on projects they have done in the area and the challenges they face with designing in China. With such rapid development in China and a decline in business everywhere else, architects the world over are competing for commissions and churning out designs at a rapid pace. The challenges they face now is that the sites of these projects have little history or city fabric to draw on for design ideas.

  I especially liked the part where Holl talks about his Linked Hybrid project. After just recently completing an urban redevelopment competition myself, I now more fully understand phasing a project and building walk-able communities for one’s users. It is astounding to me that in China, the project is not phased over a 5-7 year period or so but is built all at once without a chance to recoup some of that money before building more. I love the pedestrian bridge idea, like the catwalks in Minneapolis (although for climate reasons), they provide people to ability to escape the world of cars that the ground-plane has become in the last half a century. This also connects people to one another by connecting the residential with commercial spaces which may reside in other buildings.

  As is the theme for much of this research on China, the old rules don’t seem to apply. Where other communist countries wouldn’t dream of trying a new political system, China must due to the number of people and huge development that they have. The party says that local government corruption is that biggest threat to its continued reign. This political experiment “is seen by some leaders as a way to forge a new political model that maintains authoritarian rule while responding to the needs of an increasingly complex society.” The Chinese must constantly adapt and stay ahead of the curve if they are to stay in power.

  Shenzhen is exploding; I can’t believe how fast they are building. Imagine what changes we will see ten years from now. Off of one of the links from the New York Times article, I found a small Seattle-based firm doing work in China — I think I will apply.

• 19. j hurley  |  February 22nd, 2011 at 4:23 pm

  Seeing the pictures from 20 to 30 years ago and the the pictures from 1995 upwards really make me wonder where all the materials, man power and money came from to create such a large city. An increase in population from a few thousand to 8 million in 30 years is incredible.
  Also interesting is the fact that local farmers were allowed to keep their plots within the city creating very close proximity buildings and narrow streets… surprising they haven’t been taken over to use as land for more high rises.
  It’s cool to see that even though the city is increasing in size so quickly that there is still enough time for designers and architects to add artistic touches to the land scape

• 20. Tim Easton  |  February 28th, 2011 at 5:28 pm

  What is happening in Shenzhen is amazing. I have no architectural background but I do have a great appreciation for what is taking place there. It seems like an awesome time to be an architect working in China. All of your wildest ideas have the possibility to become a reality. I am extremely excited to visit Shenzhen and experience this city for myself. I have had many friends say that Shenzhen was their favorite spot in China.

  The photo narrative, and the article, did a great job at capturing the change that Shenzhen has gone through. The change from a fishing village to a modern city, with urban villages, in such a short amount of time is unbelievable. I really want to walk through one of the villages and see the “handshake buildings” that were talked about in both the article and the photo narrative. One of my favorite pictures is the one of the crowded street. That looks like absolute chaos but I would love to go and try to walk through a street like that. It will be interesting to watch what happens in the future for Shenzhen and similar cities.

• 21. Tara Millard  |  February 28th, 2011 at 11:05 pm

  After viewing and reading about Shenzhen, I have a STRONG desire to go there. Although the images of density in both the buildings and the street life create great apprehension, my architectural background makes visiting this city a MUST. Shenzhen is a place unlike any other and I have studied it throughout my undergraduate education as a result. The pace and organization with which Shenzhen has grown is unmatched and almost unimaginable.

  The contrast between the first image of fisherman in an open setting followed by the view of one of the densest architectural centers I have ever seen was profound. To think that people have seen this change happen in their lifetimes is beyond me. I can’t even begin to imagine how they have manage to find stability when the world around them is changing so rapidly. Perhaps, stability is not a quality of life necessary in this profound place.

  The idea of the linear city coupled with the handshake village first brought a feeling of chaos, but soon after came an image of community. This density brings with it a sense of closeness, not in the infrastructure, but in the people. Is it even possible to live in a “Handshake Village” and not know your neighbor? According to Oprah, knowing your neighbor is a key component for happiness. Perhaps Shenzhen has more to teach us then I initially realized. The city life isn’t for everyone, but if it is, I could only imagine this would be the destination of a lifetime.

  If it is even possible to add to my excitement of Shenzhen, the idea of this place being an echo of our past leaves me in amazement. Perhaps history does not need to be learned through textbooks. If places around the world are echoing trends and styles experienced in the past, what better way to understand the culture of our past than by understanding the present culture of another Country.

  If I ever end up as an ex-pat, I think this would be the place for me.

• 22. Ben Raymond  |  March 6th, 2011 at 1:00 pm

  Of all the possible destinations on the trip, Shenzhen is the one I knew least about. The article provided valuable information about Shenzhen and how it has evolved into the booming city it is today. The immense growth is a testament to the effectiveness of the Special Economic Zones in China and how beneficial they have been for China’s economy as a whole. Shenzhen is the financial center of Southern China and home to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Since its transformation from a small fishing village, foreign nationals have invested more than 30 billion U.S. dollars for building factories and forming joint ventures!

  The layout of Shenzhen is also intriguing. The linear growth creates no one true center to the city but instead many centers strung out throughout the city. Also the fact that the local laborer kept their plots and the city sprung up around them makes for very tightly packed residential buildings and bustling streets.

  I can see why Shenzhen is often referred to as New China. It really showcases the immense growth that China has experienced under the economic reform. Shenzhen is a fascinating business hub and would be a very interesting place to visit.

• 23. Matt Streiter  |  March 6th, 2011 at 6:46 pm

  Shenzhen has the ability to build and design their city from the ground up with the groundbreaking technology of today. As mentioned in the article many of the things we use in our daily lives today did not exist at the time our big cities in the states were emerging. China now has the opportunity to incorporate today’s technology in building designs as their cities experience the “boom period”. The ability to design an infrastructure to accommodate the advances in transportation, building plans, and technology in the works provides the opportunity for China to take advantage of the best achievements made in technology and incorporate them into society.

  A criticism of China’s new architecture is that there is no variation or diversity in design. A single architect is designing whole cities with a single style. This eliminates any cultural significance a city underneath the newly built skyscrapers once had. The building are built almost on top of each other to a point where you can touch another person in another building by sticking your hand out the window. The unregulated building development allowed city planners to create extremely dense communities to pack in as many people and businesses as possible. China’s desire to look new leads their architecture to look like something out of sci-fi film when compared to the conventional buildings in other parts of the world.

  Reading this article brings to mind the movie “IRobots”. The futuristic office buildings, cars, and transportation system looks like something out of a comic book. Similar to Vegas, the Waterfront in Dubai is building around themes, in this case Manhattan. The themed cities and revolutionary building designs makes China seem like a Universal Studios blown up to the size of a giant country.

• 24. Kyle R.  |  March 6th, 2011 at 9:52 pm

  I really feel that this is in an enormous feat that the Chinese have accomplished. Creating the large scale buildings and a massive infrastructure in such a short period of time seems almost impossible. I’ve worked in the construction industry for many years and have seen projects ranging from small residential to large scale defense contracts, which makes me appreciate the speed at which Shenzhen has been growing. The only issue I have is in relation to quality. I’ve served as an inspector for structural steel code conformance on many local projects and generally get the impression that the speed at which a project is completed is directly related to the quality of the finished product. Most large scale projects here in California would be completed much faster if it wasn’t for the strict guidelines that contractors and engineers must follow. Code compliance can be a hassle sometimes, but for the most part it is to protect the environment, ensure a long lasting finished product, and protect human lives. The California building code emphasizes the need for seismic stability in structures too. I am curious as to whether or not there are structural codes that exist in China, or do they go by the motto, “If it stands, it’s good enough.” The California building code is designed and reevaluated/updated frequently for safety reasons. Our codes are backed by countless hours of engineering design work and field experience. What are they using as a specification…our code?

• 25. JP Salazar  |  March 12th, 2011 at 11:37 pm

  Shenzhen’s explosive growth is the perfect example of China’s new economic freedoms at work. It is a testament to the level of growth how quickly this city has expanded from a small fishing village to a city of more than 30 million people. I find it amazing that a city can grow that fast from a logistical and planning point of view. The level of coordination and inflow of capital resources has to be immense.
  I am very excited about having the opportunity to visit a city like Shenzhen. The idea that the 20th century city is dead is an interesting one. Whenever I go to visit a major city, I usually start in the historical or cultural center and spread out from there. It should be fun to experience a city that was developed more as individual, but connected, neighborhoods. I think it could lead to some very interesting differences from block to block, both visually and culturally.
  One major concern I would have if I were in charge of development for this city after watching this video would be population density. I know that China has strict regulations on where workers can live within the city. What I would be carful of is the deterioration of certain communities into slum like situations. Here in America we are beginning to see the effects of our deteriorating infrastructure system. While everything ran smoothly when it was all new, we are now beginning to see the cracks of time in our freeways, hospitals, and airports. My major concern would be what the ramifications will be when this begins to happen in a city that is so densely populated already. Larger population densities only magnify the problems that can arise.
  I really liked the title for this blog. Before I even got into the article it made me think of the New Deal. The development going on in cities like Shenzhen and all across China is very similar to the foundation of that plan. People are being lifted from poverty by working the jobs needed to sustain such growth. The standard of living is improving through the building of public services. All of this results in a stronger, better off, more modern China. The New Deal helped lift the US and its people out of a depression and into their role as a world leader. China is in the beginning stages of this, and its people are reaping the rewards of its economic growth.

• 26. J Vail  |  March 14th, 2011 at 12:42 pm

  After seeing what the Chinese were able to accomplish building in such a short period of time, I am much more interested in urban planning over there than here. I guess I can understand how the lack of traditional architecture is upsetting to some purists, but I think brand new architecture is fascinating, not sterile. The density seems to be a bit overwhelming, and probably not the best for personal health, but I am excited to immerse myself as these special economic zones… although highly unlikely, I wish we had some here on the scale that the Chinese do. My favorite takeaway from this post is the Linked Hybrid – something I definitely want to find out about more in the future.

• 27. Chris F.  |  March 16th, 2011 at 6:31 pm

  It is always amazing how things change as we go through life. I have seen the changes to Cal Poly campus and to Las Vegas (where my family lives), but these changes pale in comparison to the rapid development of Shenzhen, China. While the change is rapid, I do have doubts as whether it will be good for the long run of the city. While planning and development have been taken into consideration when planning the neighborhoods, I think the overall need for construction will cause compromises to be had when making housing, transportation networks and overall building quality to get the jobs complete. But to the credit of the Chinese people living in Shenzhen, their city has grown in a scale never before seen in human history. With time, perhaps the city will gain an identity of its own.

  As far as the political climate in Shenzhen, I think what the Chinese governing body has done in terms of giving the area ‘autonomy’ to govern themselves seems to be a good experiment to see if reforms can be done on a national level. The economic reforms imposed 30 years ago have paid off better than expected for the Chinese; perhaps this can be a start for reform in general for China. Time will tell.

• 28. Omar Pradhan  |  March 18th, 2011 at 1:44 pm

  I like the idea of giving architects an opportunity to fully actualize their vision. As someone who grew up playing every version of SimCity available, I look forward to seeing firsthand how Shenzhen compares to other cities I have imagined / simulated as a child and visited / lived in as an adult (NYC, Dallas, Houston, Washington DC, LA, SF, Manila, Paris, Venice, Florence, Izmir, Madrid, Rio etc.) I’ve always marveled at how much history has an effect on a cityscape. Given Shenzhen’s proximity to unbounded commerce potential, near limitless supply of development resources (modern construction materials and techniques, land with stable bedrock for vertical growth, human capital: engineers, architects & construction workers, cheap financing, etc.) and lack of historical or political development constraints, Shenzhen seems poised to remain an architectural / design phenomenon. My concerns remain about the extent to which this wild-west frenzied development is impairing common sense adherence to worker safety, construction safety, environmental safety, etc. professional norms. Moreover, given the recent Fukushima nuclear incident, it would seem reasonable to insist on some regulatory oversight to ensure that development is safe not just in the measureable near term, but long after the current generation passes on.

• 29. Kevin K.  |  December 29th, 2011 at 12:32 pm

  Shenzhen has had an incredible growth spurt to say the least. From a fishing village to an instant metropolis? Those things just don’t happen very often. In a way it sounds as though the city is a giant sandbox — a playground for architects, businessmen, and politicians. The combination of skyscrapers and older villages — as Nicolai Ouroussoff described it — allows for a stark dichotomy (and incredible density) to this growing city. But what will happen when growth stops? What then will the skyline look like and who will be living in this city of the future? I have not traveled a whole lot in my life, but Shenzhen looks like a unique destination I look forward to experiencing.

• 30. Vladimir  |  January 1st, 2012 at 9:27 pm

  To go from a fishing village of several thousand to a city of 14 million in 30 years is amazing. It took the right conditions for Shenzhen to make the transformation including: Being designated a Special Economic Zone with privileges designed to spur growth and availability of workers in surrounding areas who would be attracted to the city in great numbers. Even in the 1920s – 1940s, with nationwide population growth, no US city grew nearly this fast. It looks like the “small government, big society” political experiment is working, as far as city growth is concerned, but what impact will it have on people’s view of the government, will they want even less government involvement and eventually challenge party rule?

  I knew employers had the upper hand in China, but I didn’t think factories would regularly withhold salaries and not pay workers what they owe. Are there laws against this, and if there are is it easy for companies to break them anyway? Enforcing these laws might make workers feel more dependent on the government.

  I look forward to visiting Shenzhen and seeing the factories where some of my electronics came from. I’d like to see the single-product cities too: faucet city, button city, card city, necktie city, toilet city. The price and cost competition within these cities must be intense.

• 31. Daniel Fleek  |  January 19th, 2012 at 12:46 pm

  I thought the way the Chinese government handled the original villagers of Shenzhen was interesting. By letting them keep their land and developing all around them, they were able to increase property values which then allowed them to transform their living areas to suit the new city environment. Although this seems like a great idea, I thought that this practice in a city with its own economic rules was the reason why handshake buildings were built. Since there is so much economic freedom, people just tried to build as much as they could in as little space as possible which I think interferes with human rights since now the migrant workers had to live in such small confined living spaces. However, the growth in Shenzhen is very impressive. In the New York Times slideshow, I couldn’t believe the difference in today’s Shenzhen to the early 1980’s photo of the fishermen. So in this way, I think the special economic zone is working in that it has transformed a little fishing village to a bustling modern city.

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