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CHINA INDUSTRY ATLAS城市 · City evolution
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City evolution · 1980 → today

Shenzhen深圳 · from special zone to today

In a single lifetime, a county of farms and fishing villages next to Hong Kong became a city of ~18 million and a ~¥3.9-trillion economy. Step through the decades to watch how Shenzhen grew, and what it made along the way.

~330k
Permanent population
¥0.27 bn
GDP
GDP, multiplied since 1980
01

Watch it grow

Pick a decade. The shaded footprint expands from the original 1980 zone (the southern strip along the Hong Kong border) to the whole municipality, and the industries of that era light up.

Shenzhen, decade by decade · 深圳hover a dot · drag to pan

This era

The whole arc

02

What Shenzhen made, by decade

The same value-chain climb the whole country made — run at fast-forward, in one city.

03

Field notes