Shenzhen Introduction (三)

【Climate】

Shenzhen has a subtropical maritime climate with abundant sunshine. With a 6-month long summer season, Shenzhen's weather is also mild in the rest of the year. Its annual average temperature is 23.7 degrees centigrade with a historical high at 36.6 and a historical low at 1.4 degrees.

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Huge Portrait of Deng Xiaoping

Located in Shenzhen's Shennan Thoroughfare, the Huge Portrait of Deng Xiaoping is one of the city's benchmark tourist attractions. The modern spray-painted portrait is as large as 300 square meters with 18 spotlights.

The 10-meter-high and 30-meter-broad portrait was created in1992 after Deng Xiaoping paid an inspection tour to South China in the springtime. Shenzhen created the huge portrait in June 1992, entitling it as "Comrade Deng Xiaoping in Shenzhen" to display local citizens' great reverence and gratitude to Deng.

Highlighting Deng Xiaoping's smiling image amongst Shenzhen's modernization panorama and blossoming red azaleas, the portrait has become the symbol of Shenzhen's opening up and reform.

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Shenzhen Introduction (二)

【Economy】

Shenzhen is China's first special economic zone. It could achieve only 606 yuan per capita GDP in 1979. At present, Shenzhen tops all the municipalities in mainland China regarding per capita GDP as one of the municipalities with best economic returns nationwide. It also leads mainland China's large and mid-size municipalities regarding per unit area GDP, average personal income and total export. Additionally, Shenzhen's GDP ranks fourth among large and mid-size municipalities in mainland China while its government revenue takes the third place. Shenzhen's total import and export volume accounts for one seventh of the country's total, leading the country in this regard for 12 years in a row.

As the outpost of Pearl River Delta Area, Shenzhen is the bridge connecting mainland China and Hong Kong as an important transport hub in the coastal area of South China. The Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Corridor will bring about closer mutual links upon completion. Hi-tech, modern logistics, financial services and cultural industry are the four economic pillars which Shenzhenis striving to develop.

On the whole, Shenzhen has established a new industrial structure in compliance with the functions of a modern and central city featuring "hi-tech & advanced manufacturing as economic base and modern service industry as economic backbone" after years of development.

【Ecological Environment】

Shenzhen is China's first city where the objective that all industrial pollution sources treatment must be up to par is achieved. Shenzhen has a total of 11 wastewater treatment plants with 5 more new ones under construction. Statistics show that 81 percent of Shenzhen's urban refuse harmless treatment is handled properly while 96% of processed industrial wastewater and 96.7% of water source in the city's major reservoirs for drinking water supply is up to standard. The regional average noise level and average noise level on both sides of main urban traffic trunk line stands at 56.1 and 69.2 decibel respectively.

Shenzhen has won international awards like "Nations in Bloom" by International Federation of Park and Recreation Administration (IFPRA) and "Global Top 500 Laureate Roll of Honor" by UNEP as well as national awards such as "National Clean City," "National Garden City" and "National Model Green City".

Shenzhen's green area takes up 45 percent of the total urban area with a per capital green area of 16 square meters. The total area of natural protection zone is 170.3 square kilometers, accounting for 7 percent of total municipal area.

To be continued

Shenzhen Introduction (一)

【General Introduction】

A coastal city in South China, Shenzhen is located in southern Guangdong and eastern riverbank of the Pearl River. It verges on Daya Bay and Dapeng Bay eastward, estuary of Pearl River and Lingdingyang Sea westward and Dongguan and Huizhou northward, bordering Hong Kong southward via Shenzhen River with a 45-minute ride from its downtown to Hong Kong.

Shenzhen covers a total area of 1,952.84 square kilometers, including 395.81square kilometers designated as Shenzhen Special Economic Zone.

【History】

Shenzhen used to be known as Bao'an County, which was officially established in 331, 6th Year of Xianhe Period of Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420). The present name Shenzhen was made public for the first time in the year of 1410, 8th Year of Yongle Period of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), based on historical records. A local township fair was set up at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). As it is crisscrossed with numerous drains whose Chinese pronunuation is "zhen" or "chong" in local dialect, local residents named the place as "Shenzhen"with "Shen" and "Zhen" meaning "deep" and "drain" respectively.

Bao'an County was officially renamed as Shenzhen Municipality in March 1979 authorized by central and provincial governments. In May 1980, the CPC Central Committee and State Council officially designated Shenzhen as a special economic zone, which was officially approved by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in August, 1978.

Shenzhen was further promoted to sub provincial status in March 1981. In October 1988, Shenzhen was approved by the State Council as a separate planning city with provincial-level economic management status. The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress authorized the People's Congress of Shenzhen Municipality, the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Shenzhen Municipality and Shenzhen Municipal Government the power to enact local laws and regulations.

Shenzhen has witnessed rapid population growth since the establishment of municipality with migrants flocking in from all over the country, making it the only city in Guangdong with putonghua (Mandarin) as the main-stream spoken language.

To be continued

Shenzhen economy maintains steady growth

THE economy in Shenzhen continues to grow at a steady pace amid the global economic slowdown thanks to the city’s competitive edge brought about by relying on independent innovation and implementing the policy of upgrading industrial structures.

Exports, investment and consumption all recorded growth in the first 10 months, according to statistics released by the municipal statistics bureau yesterday. The electronic information industry, new investment opportunities related to the 2011 Summer Universiade and new types of consumption contributed much to boost the economy, bureau officials said.

The added value realized by industrial enterprises above a designated size in the January-October period had reached 287.30 billion yuan (US$42 billion), an increase of 11.9 percent over the same period last year, statistics show. The electronics information industry continued to take the lead with its total added value hitting 127.70 million yuan, an increase of 16.9 percent year on year and 5 percentage points higher than the city’s average growth rate.

“The impact on Shenzhen’s economy brought about by the global financial crisis cannot be underestimated,” said Wei Dazhi, head of the industrial economics research center at Shenzhen University. Against the backdrop of the downturn of the world’s economy, exports in Shenzhen, which relies heavily on an export-oriented economy, is facing a tougher challenge. Statistics released by Shenzhen Customs show the city’s total foreign trade volume reached 249.19 billion yuan in the first 10 months, up 8.3 percent year on year.

Affected by factors such as oil price hikes, the growth rate of the city’s transport industry had seen a slowdown. Container throughput at Shenzhen ports in the first 10 months reached 18 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units), up 4.2 percent year on year.

Domestic consumption was playing a bigger role in driving up Shenzhen’s economic growth, according to officials with the statistics bureau. In the first 10 months, the city realized 186.37 billion yuan in the total retail sales of consumer goods, up 18.7 percent over a year ago. Experts say apart from stable commodity prices, the high consumption power of Shenzhen residents is another crucial factor in helping Shenzhen weather the financial crisis and maintain a healthy economic growth. (Eunice Kang)