The city of Shenzhen is one of the world’s true megacities. Bridging the gap between mainland China and Hong Kong, it’s hard to believe that just 40 years ago it was a rural farming community, made up of villages clustered on the banks of China’s Pearl River.
That all changed in 1979 when the government declared the region a ‘special economic zone’ (an area that would allow foreign investment and technology), rocketing Shenzhen into existence as the area expanded at a rate the world had never seen.
Today, this mega-metropolis is the largest continuously urbanised area on the planet. It puts the ‘China’ in Made in China, literally.
But as industrial as this all sounds, Shenzhen is also a rising star when it comes to travel. It has been dubbed ‘the city of the future’, ‘China’s cultural capital’ and ‘China’s most innovative city’ by magazines around the world, as well as earning itself a spot on Lonely Planet’s list of ‘top ten cities to visit in 2019’.