Shenzhen: Urban Myth of a New Chinese City

摘要

Proximity to Hong Kong is often cited as the main reason for the economic success of Shenzhen and its surrounding Pearl River Delta region. Ironically, when Hong Kong was ceded by Qing Dynasty China to the British Empire in 1842, the then barren rock's biggest asset was its location in the Pearl River estuary, where the freshwater Pearl River flows into the South China Sea. The Pearl River Delta (PRD), located in China's southernmost Guangdong Province, was one of Asia's main trading ports for hundreds of years before the colonization of Hong Kong: there are sites within Shenzhen's urban territory that date to 300 C.E. From open trade, warring concessions, collapse of the Qing Dynasty, to the People's Republic of China's isolationist stance and later changing to the Open Door Policy reforms during the 1970s and 1980s, the region has undergone tremendous transformations.