shenzhen celebrates 30 years of being a special economic zone today, an event that was to instigate momentous change in china. Deng Xiaoping, China’s leader at the time, had just been given a nasty shock; China’s energy reserves were down to just two weeks supplies and it became obvious that a major reform of the nation’s infrastructure and impetus was needed. One of the effects of this (aside from begging and borrowing internationally for oil supplies and completely overhauling the ministries concerned) was to usher in a new type of concept. Shenzhen, deliberately chosen to be far away from anywhere else should the experiment fail, was chosen as the site for “socialism with chinese characteristics” – a deliberately sly term that actually meant state managed capitalism.

Photo taken on Sept. 6, 2010 in Shenzhen, south China’s Guangdong Province, shows fireworks which is set off to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishing of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone

Shenzhen’s achievements in the past 30 years have been nothing less than mind-blowing. The city has been recognized as China’s most competitive city in the past four years by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and its GDP per capital is amongst the highest in the country at just under US$15,000. Still little known in the West, Shenzhen today boasts the fourth largest container port in the world and its airport is the fourth busiest in the country. From a small fishing village the city has become one of the largest manufacturing and export bases for electronics, semiconductors, medical equipments, toys and furniture in the world. Shenzhen’s opening to the outside effectively begun in 1980 when it was given the status of special economic zone. It was the first “window” in the country to attract both foreign investors as well as local entrepreneurs which found a local fertile ground where to develop their businesses and ideas. All the China prominent economic champions, the China-born and based multinationals that will lead the world in their respective fields have all their roots here. BYD, Huawei, ZTE, Mindray, Lenovo have all become global brands in their own rights. It is no wonder that Shenzhen’s exports topped China’s cities for the past 17 years. Shenzhen has became the biggest electronic sourcing hub in China, supply most gadgets to all over the world.