General Introduction

【General Introduction】

A coastal city in South China, Shenzhen is located in southern Guangdong and eastern riverbank of the Pearl River. It verges on Daya Bay and Dapeng Bay eastward, estuary of Pearl River and Lingdingyang Sea westward and Dongguan and Huizhou northward, bordering Hong Kong southward via Shenzhen River with a 45-minute ride from its downtown to Hong Kong.

Shenzhen covers a total area of 1,952.84 square kilometers, including 395.81square kilometers designated as Shenzhen Special Economic Zone.

【History】

Shenzhen used to be known as Bao'an County, which was officially established in 331, 6th Year of Xianhe Period of Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420). The present name Shenzhen was made public for the first time in the year of 1410, 8th Year of Yongle Period of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), based on historical records. A local township fair was set up at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). As it is crisscrossed with numerous drains whose Chinese pronunuation is "zhen" or "chong" in local dialect, local residents named the place as "Shenzhen"with "Shen" and "Zhen" meaning "deep" and "drain" respectively.

Bao'an County was officially renamed as Shenzhen Municipality in March 1979 authorized by central and provincial governments. In May 1980, the CPC Central Committee and State Council officially designated Shenzhen as a special economic zone, which was officially approved by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in August, 1978.

Shenzhen was further promoted to sub provincial status in March 1981. In October 1988, Shenzhen was approved by the State Council as a separate planning city with provincial-level economic management status. The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress authorized the People's Congress of Shenzhen Municipality, the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Shenzhen Municipality and Shenzhen Municipal Government the power to enact local laws and regulations.

Shenzhen has witnessed rapid population growth since the establishment of municipality with migrants flocking in from all over the country, making it the only city in Guangdong with putonghua (Mandarin) as the main-stream spoken language.

【Economy】

Shenzhen is China's first special economic zone. It could achieve only 606 yuan per capita GDP in 1979. At present, Shenzhen tops all the municipalities in mainland China regarding per capita GDP as one of the municipalities with best economic returns nationwide. It also leads mainland China's large and mid-size municipalities regarding per unit area GDP, average personal income and total export. Additionally, Shenzhen's GDP ranks fourth among large and mid-size municipalities in mainland China while its government revenue takes the third place. Shenzhen's total import and export volume accounts for one seventh of the country's total, leading the country in this regard for 12 years in a row.

As the outpost of Pearl River Delta Area, Shenzhen is the bridge connecting mainland China and Hong Kong as an important transport hub in the coastal area of South China. The Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Corridor will bring about closer mutual links upon completion. Hi-tech, modern logistics, financial services and cultural industry are the four economic pillars which Shenzhenis striving to develop.

On the whole, Shenzhen has established a new industrial structure in compliance with the functions of a modern and central city featuring "hi-tech & advanced manufacturing as economic base and modern service industry as economic backbone" after years of development.

【Ecological Environment】

Shenzhen is China's first city where the objective that all industrial pollution sources treatment must be up to par is achieved. Shenzhen has a total of 11 wastewater treatment plants with 5 more new ones under construction. Statistics show that 81 percent of Shenzhen's urban refuse harmless treatment is handled properly while 96% of processed industrial wastewater and 96.7% of water source in the city's major reservoirs for drinking water supply is up to standard. The regional average noise level and average noise level on both sides of main urban traffic trunk line stands at 56.1 and 69.2 decibel respectively.

Shenzhen has won international awards like "Nations in Bloom" by International Federation of Park and Recreation Administration (IFPRA) and "Global Top 500 Laureate Roll of Honor" by UNEP as well as national awards such as "National Clean City," "National Garden City" and "National Model Green City".

Shenzhen's green area takes up 45 percent of the total urban area with a per capital green area of 16 square meters. The total area of natural protection zone is 170.3 square kilometers, accounting for 7 percent of total municipal area.

【Climate】

Shenzhen has a subtropical maritime climate with abundant sunshine. With a 6-month long summer season, Shenzhen's weather is also mild in the rest of the year. Its annual average temperature is 23.7 degrees centigrade with a historical high at 36.6 and a historical low at 1.4 degrees.

Line for journalists

Huge Portrait of Deng Xiaoping

Located in Shenzhen's Shennan Thoroughfare, the Huge Portrait of Deng Xiaoping is one of the city's benchmark tourist attractions. The modern spray-painted portrait is as large as 300 square meters with 18 spotlights.

The 10-meter-high and 30-meter-broad portrait was created in1992 after Deng Xiaoping paid an inspection tour to South China in the springtime. Shenzhen created the huge portrait in June 1992, entitling it as "Comrade Deng Xiaoping in Shenzhen" to display local citizens' great reverence and gratitude to Deng.

Highlighting Deng Xiaoping's smiling image amongst Shenzhen's modernization panorama and blossoming red azaleas, the portrait has become the symbol of Shenzhen's opening up and reform.

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

Committed to providing innovative and customized products, services and solutions to create longterm value and growth potential for its customers, Huawei is a global leading provider of next generation telecommunications network solutions.

Leading the country regarding patent application for consecutive years, Huawei had filed a total of over 19,000 patent application in 2006. Huawei has set up more than 100 branch offices worldwide aiming to serve global market.

website: www.huawei.com.cn

Central Bookstore of Shenzhen Bookmall

Situated in the northern axis line of Shenzhen's CBD and covering an area of 8.7 hectares, the Central Bookstore is the flagship of Shenzhen Bookmall. It was categorized as a priority project by the municipal government in the year 2003 and 2004. Adjacent to Lotus Hill Park in the north, Civic Center in the south, Shenzhen Concert Hall and Shenzhen Library in the west, and Shenzhen Children's Palace in the east, the Bookstore is easily accessible both by bus and subway.

website: www.szbookmall.com

Tencent Inc.

As China's leading and first instant messaging service provider, Tencent is an internet service, mobile and other related value-added service provider. Incorporated in Shenzhen in November 1998, Tencent first launched its instant messaging service platform "QQ" in February 1999. Tencent targets personal instant messaging, corporate instant messaging and online media for strategic development.

website: www.qq.com

Nanling Village

With a total of 176 local households and 786 residents along with 10 thousand migrants and covering an area of 5.5 square meters, Nanling Village is located in Buji Town, Longgan District, bordering Hong Kong and close to Shenzhen Special Economic Zone.

Nanling Village is a model village of the new socialist countryside. It has developed into a rich village with 1 billion yuan of collective assets from an impoverished rural village two decades ago. Annual per capita disposable personal income has surged to 95,000 yuan from less than 100 yuan likewise. 4 industrial zones have been established attracting over 30 foreign enterprises to settle in. The CPC Nanling Village Branch also built a suburban park and a resort, based on its natural conditions.

Cartoon Animation Base

As one of national cartoon animation industry bases, Shenzhen is the first outsource Chinese city for overseas market. The Hong Kong-invested Animated Emerald Co., Ltd., China's first ever cartoon animation studio, was incorporated in Shenzhen in the middle of 1980s. Shenzhen accounted for up to70 percent of China's total cartoon animation producers at its peak time supplying numerous animated cartoon products home and abroad.

With over 10 thousand staff, Shenzhen has over 500 enterprises specializing in cartoon animation creation and production, contributing dozens of million yuan to local GDP. Shenzhen Polytechnic has also founded a School of Animation.

A Happy Tour

If interested, you can visit following tourist spots after work:

Zhongying Street, Dameisha and Xiaomeisha Beach, Overseas Chinese Town, Dapeng Fortress, etc