Shenzhen was a fishing village Concepts

Seasteading: How Floating Nations Will Restore the Environment, Enrich the Poor, Cure the Sick, and Liberate Humanity From Politicians

by Joe Quirk and Patri Friedman · 21 Mar 2017 · 441pp · 113,244 words

that appears so futuristic that viewers ask if it’s been Photoshopped. It’s real. At the time of its designation as an SEZ, Shenzhen was a small fishing village, lacking even a traffic light. In fifteen years, property values in Shenzhen soared 8,000 percent. In the same amount of time, it

Aerotropolis

by John D. Kasarda and Greg Lindsay · 2 Jan 2009 · 603pp · 182,781 words

leader Deng Xiaoping declared “to get rich is glorious” while passing through the city on his farewell tour. Deng is the father of Shenzhen, having chosen this sleepy fishing village as the first of China’s “special economic zones” in 1980. Foreign firms were invited to open shop here with few constraints or

The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World

by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian · 7 Oct 2024 · 336pp · 104,899 words

at the University of Toronto, began her own inquiry into the same question, she was so stunned at the discrepancy between the myth of Shenzhen—the old “fishing village” bit—and the city’s reality that she ended up writing a whole book about it. “After more than a decade of scholarly research

Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization

by Parag Khanna · 18 Apr 2016 · 497pp · 144,283 words

and catapult societies into modernity. SEZs have proven to be enormous catalysts for connectivity and growth across underdeveloped countries. In 1979, Deng Xiaoping designated Shenzhen, then a fishing village north of Hong Kong, as China’s first special economic zone. Since that time, Shenzhen has grown into a thriving international hub of fifteen

Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy That Works for Progress, People and Planet

by Klaus Schwab and Peter Vanham · 27 Jan 2021 · 460pp · 107,454 words

city of more than ten million people, alongside Beijing, Shanghai, and Canton's capital to its northwest, Guangzhou. Gone were the days of Shenzhen as a “sleepy fishing village” next to some paddies of rice. As the Special Economic Zones were a runaway success, the Chinese government created more of them, mostly along

Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

by Patrick McGee · 13 May 2025 · 377pp · 138,306 words

so-called Communist country,” suggesting that as the country planted the seeds of economic reform, the flower of political reform would bloom. In 1980, Shenzhen was a fishing village of fewer than 70,000 people. But as a special economic zone just across the harbor from Hong Kong, Shenzhen and the area around

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’s one per second, round the clock and year-round—and it’s less than half of China’s export total.” By 2010, the fishing villages in Shenzhen had transformed into a city more populous than New York City, replete with dazzling skyscrapers. The problem was that this building craze was not representative

Earth Wars: The Battle for Global Resources

by Geoff Hiscock · 23 Apr 2012 · 363pp · 101,082 words

or better growth that catapulted China’s economy into the major league. The special economic zones that began in the early 1980s with the sleepy fishing village of Shenzhen, just across from Hong Kong on the Chinese mainland, were beginning to deliver on their trade and investment potential. In 2000, the city of

Adapt: Why Success Always Starts With Failure

by Tim Harford · 1 Jun 2011 · 459pp · 103,153 words

independent city state off the coast of Malaysia; Hong Kong, for many years a British enclave on the South China Sea; more recently, Shenzhen, thirty years ago a fishing village not far from Hong Kong, now a city to rival Hong Kong itself after being designated China’s first ‘special economic zone’. Beyond

Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy That Works for Progress, People and Planet

by Klaus Schwab · 7 Jan 2021 · 460pp · 107,454 words

city of more than ten million people, alongside Beijing, Shanghai, and Canton's capital to its northwest, Guangzhou. Gone were the days of Shenzhen as a “sleepy fishing village” next to some paddies of rice. As the Special Economic Zones were a runaway success, the Chinese government created more of them, mostly along

Insane Mode: How Elon Musk's Tesla Sparked an Electric Revolution to End the Age of Oil

by Hamish McKenzie · 30 Sep 2017 · 307pp · 90,634 words

find scenes of change in China, but the sense of dynamism is perhaps nowhere more profound than in the border city of Shenzhen. In the 1970s, Shenzhen was an unremarkable fishing village at the end of the Kowloon-Canton rail route. Since President Deng Xiaoping established it as a Special Economic Zone in 1980