Shenzhen, China.
The Chinese city has seen exponential growth in both population and investment in recent years. It went from 30,000 to 17 million inhabitants and has positioned itself as one of the most important technological hubs in the world.
Shenzhen is currently one of the most important cities in China; an innovation hub with a broad international reputation that conquers the world with its technology. However, this was not always the case: 40 years ago, this area was a fishing village relatively unknown to the world.
Located in the Pearl River Delta, south of China and close to Hong Kong, it had about 30,000 inhabitants before becoming a city of more than 17 million.
Its evolution began in 1979, when the then leader of the Communist Party, Deng Xiaoping, declared the city as the first special economic zone in mainland China, an event that marked the beginning of the development of the small city, oriented towards export and investment.
Many Hong Kong companies invested in Shenzhen, and foreign investment was allowed in. Shenzhen became a hub for production, starting with basic industrial production and later the electronics and information industry. This made the city part of the global manufacturing chain.
Investment attracted thousands of migrants and boosted the construction of factories and housing. By the mid-1990s, Shenzhen had three million inhabitants.
The Chinese national government, together with the local government, then continued to project strategic plans. Today, it is part of a 2017-2030 sustainable development plan which sees this city as the designated center for the construction of laboratories in the areas of biological sciences, cyberspace and material sciences.
Shenzhen is the city with the highest concentration of high-tech companies in China: it is home to national technology companies such as Huawei, OPPO and Tencent, and has electronics assembly plants such as Foxconn, the most important supplier of companies such as Apple and Samsung. This city is also home to several large electronics assembly plants.
In 2017 it was awarded the recognition of the most innovative city in the world and in 2018 it surpassed Hong Kong in growth.
Currently, it has a gross domestic product of more than 443 billion dollars, ranking it as the third city with the highest GDP in China and number 17 in the world.
Guangzhou, China.
Guangzhou is a city in southern China, capital of Guangdong Province.
Due to its excellent location and long history, Guangzhou is the economic center of the most important manufacturing and commercial regions in China.
Guangzhou is also famous for holding the Canton Fair in spring and summer every year. It has a large number of products on display, a large number of exhibitors from different countries at this fair.
It is the largest fair in China
In ancient times Guangzhou was the starting point of the “Silk Road” from the China Sea, foreign exchange activities are very active. Various cultural exchanges are making Guangzhou an international tourism city.
Guangzhou was the main departure point for Chinese emigrants since the 19th century. It was also one of the first cities in ancient China to initiate trade exchanges. That is why most of the Chinese dishes known in the world originate from Guangzhou
The Guangzhou trade fair is one of the most important in the world. Guangzhou is a city full of entrepreneurial vigour and commercial enthusiasm that seems to never sleep. It showed a display of organisation during the 16th Asian Games in 2010, which it hosted with great success. It is always reinventing itself.
It is China’s gateway to Macau and Hong Kong, as well as being a decisive political, economic, scientific, educational and cultural centre for the entire region.
Guangzhou has emerged as a pioneer in the country’s economic development, with thousands of small, medium and large companies offering jobs.
This city and also the entire province are particularly prosperous in the tourism, commercial, financial, gastronomic, investment and real estate sectors. Its agricultural and manufacturing production is mainly dedicated to the production of rice and sugar cane. Guangzhou is at the top of the country’s growth and prosperity figures.