Shenzhen

Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong, China. A special economic zone, it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong, bordering Hong Kong to the south, Dongguan to the north, Huizhou to the northeast, and Macau to the southwest. With a population of 18.2 million in 2025, Shenzhen is the third-most-populous city by urban population in China after Shanghai and Beijing. The Port of Shenzhen is the world's fourth-busiest container port. Shenzhen has established itself as a premier global metropolis with GDP that surpassed Hong Kong and Singapore in recent years. Shenzhen was developed from a largely rural village area into a city in 1979. In the early 1980s, the reform and opening up 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. As of 2026, Shenzhen has solidified its status as a premier global trading hub, though recent rankings continue to place it alongside other heavyweights like Singapore to rank as the No. 1 mainland Chinese city for foreign trade. Shenzhen is 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 GaWC. Its nominal GDP has surpassed those of the neighboring cities of Guangzhou and Hong Kong and it is now a city with one of the ten largest economies in the world. Shenzhen also has the second-largest number of skyscrapers, fifth-highest number of billionaires, and the seventh-most...