It rises like a mirage as you pass the fallow fields and fish ponds of outer Hong Kong: a wall of skyscrapers shimmering in the distance. This is Shenzhen, which has grown from a small fishing village into a major financial and technology hub in less than 40 years.
Like many other cities in China, Shenzhen is crazy for skyscrapers.
The city’s relationship with high-rises goes back to 1980, when China’s reformist leader, Deng Xiaoping, declared that a swath of farmland along the Hong Kong border would become a so-called Special Economic Zone.
The decision meant that companies could operate with fewer of the restrictions of a planned economy — China’s first major experiment with free markets since the Communist revolution of 1949. Investors from Hong Kong — and beyond — rushed across the border to build factories and other businesses.
Source: Shenzhen’s never-ending skyscraper boom – CNN.com
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