Shenzhen (market town)

Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province of Guangdong, bordering Hong Kong to the south, Dongguan to the north, and Huizhou to the northeast. With a population of 17.56 million as of 2020, Shenzhen is the third most populous city by urban population in China after Shanghai and Beijing. Shenzhen is a global center in technology, research, manufacturing, business and economics, finance, tourism and transportation, and the Port of Shenzhen is the world's fourth busiest container port. Shenzhen is classified as a Large-Port Megacity, the largest type of port-city in the world.

Shenzhen roughly follows the administrative boundaries of Bao'an County, which was established since imperial times. The southern portion of Bao'an County was seized by the British after the Opium Wars and became Hong Kong, while the village of Shenzhen was situated on the border. Due to the completion of a train station that was the last stop on the Mainland Chinese section of the railway between Guangzhou and Kowloon, Shenzhen's economy grew and became a market town and later a city by 1979, absorbing Bao'an County for the next decade.

In the early 1980s, economic reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping resulted in the city becoming the first special economic zone of China due to its close proximity to Hong Kong, attracting foreign direct investment and migrants searching for opportunities. In thirty years, the city's economy and population boomed and has since emerged as a hub for technology, international trade, and finance. It is the home to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, one of the largest stock exchanges in the world by market capitalization and the Guangdong Free-Trade Zone. Shenzhen is ranked as an Alpha- ( global first-tier) city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Its nominal GDP has surpassed neighboring cities of Guangzhou and Hong Kong and is now among the top ten cities with the largest economies in the world. Shenzhen also has the eighth most competitive and largest financial center in the world, the eighth-most Fortune Global 500 headquarters of any city in the world, fifth-highest number of billionaires of any city in the world, the second largest number of skyscrapers of any city in the world, the 28th largest scientific research output of any city in the world, and several notable educational institutions, such as Shenzhen University, Southern University of Science and Technology, and Shenzhen Technology University.

Due to the city being a leading global technology hub, Shenzhen has been dubbed by media ''China's Silicon Valley''. The city's entrepreneurial, innovative, and competitive-based culture has resulted in the city being home to numerous small-time manufacturers or software companies. Several of these firms became large technology corporations such as phone manufacturer Huawei, holding company Tencent, and drone-maker DJI. As an important international city, Shenzhen hosts numerous national and international events every year, such as the 2011 Summer Universiade and the . Shenzhen's rapid success has resulted in the Chinese government turning Shenzhen into a model city for other cities in China to follow.

Toponymy

The earliest known recorded mention of the name ''chen'' could date from 1410, during the Ming Dynasty. Locals call the drains in paddy fields "Zhen" (). Shenzhen was named after a deep () drain that was located within the area."

History

Prehistory to Ming era

The oldest evidence of humans in the area on which Shenzhen was established dates back during the mid-Neolithic period. Since then, this area has seen human activity from more than 6,700 years ago, with Shenzhen's historic counties first established 1,700 years ago, and the historic towns of Nantou and Dapeng, which was built on the area that is now Shenzhen, established more than 600 years ago. The Hakka people also have a history in Shenzhen since 300 years ago when they first immigrated.

In 214 BC, when Emperor Qin Shi Huang unified China under the Qin Dynasty, the area went under the jurisdiction of the established Nanhai Commandery, one of the three commanderies that were set up in Lingnan, and was assimilated into Zhongyuan culture. In 331 AD, the Eastern Jin administration split up Nanhai and established a new (东官郡).Brief History of Shenzhen
, Shenzhen Government official website. The seat of both the commandery and Bao'an County, one of its six counties, was located around the modern town of Nantou. In 590, the Sui administration merged the region back into Nanhai. In 757, the Tang administration renamed the county Dongguan, and moved its seat to what is now Dongguan city, although a military garrison remained.

During the Song Dynasty, Nantou and the surrounding area became an important trade hub for salt and spices in the South China Sea.Rule, Ted and Karen, "Shenzhen, the Book", Hong Kong 2014 The area then became known for producing pearls during the Yuan Dynasty. In the early Ming era, Chinese sailors of a fleet would go to a Mazu temple in Chiwan (in present-day Nanshan District) to pray as they go to Nanyang (Southeast Asia). The Battle of Tunmen, when the Ming won a naval battle against invading Portuguese, was fought south of Nantou. In 1573, the Ming administration established Xin'an County, based in Nantou, which had authority over regions that would be Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Xin'an County's economy primarily was based on the production and trade of salt, tea, spices, and rice.

Qing-era to 1940s

To prevent a rebellion from Ming loyalists under Zheng Chenggong, better known as Koxinga, on the Chinese coast, the recently established Qing administration resettled coastal residents inland and re-organized coastal counties. As a result, Xin'an County lost two-thirds of its territory to the neighboring Dongguan County and was later incorporated into Dongguan in 1669, though Xin'an was restored about 15 years later, in 1684. After the Qing dynasty was defeated by the United Kingdom in the First and Second Opium Wars, Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula were separated from Xin'an and ceded to the British in the Treaty of Nanking and the Convention of Peking. On 21 April 1898, the Qing government signed a "Special Article for the Exhibition of Hong Kong's Borders" with the United Kingdom, and leased the New Territories from Xin'an to the United Kingdom for 99 years.Xin'an was briefly occupied by a British force under the command of Henry Arthur Blake, the governor of Hong Kong, for half a year in 1899. From the of territory that Xin'an held before the treaties, of the county was ceded to the British.

In response to the Wuchang Uprising in 1911, Xin'an residents rebelled against the local Qing administration and successfully overthrew them. In the same year the Chinese section of the Kowloon–Canton Railway