Shenzhen: Silicon Valley of China

My seven-day visit to China at the end of April led me to the city of Shenzhen. This is the fourth biggest city in China after Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai.

I joined 10 Uganda government officials working in ICT departments for this technology learning expedition. The programme is sponsored by Huawei Technology.

Shenzhen lies about 100km south of Guangzhou, though unlike other Chinese mega cities, its history is only three decades long.

It is a modern city set up as a special economic zone by Deng Xiaoping, leader of China from 1978 to 1989. Today, the city has well paved and lit streets, the most flourishing real estate businesses in China, and modern shopping malls.

Shenzhen is located in Guangdong province, north of Hong Kong. The city of 16 million is a technology paradise.

We drove to Shenzhen through Hong Kong. Shenzhen is about one-and-a-half hour drive from Hong Kong International Airport.

The immigration officers at the Hong Kong airport had been uncomfortable with the Ugandan passports my colleague and I held, and kept us for an extra 40 minutes scrutinising our travel documents.

“What are you going to do in Shenzhen?” one of them asked.

“We are here at the invitation of Huawei Technologies,” my colleague said, producing the invitation letter. “The government of Uganda has sponsored 10 officials to learn the latest technologies at Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen,” I explained. They let us go.

We drove on the suspended bridge over Pearl River Delta, one of the wonders of Hong Kong. I was impressed by the environment consciousness among city planners and residents.

Three decades ago, Shenzhen was a fishing village called Baoan County. It was renamed Shenzhen in 1979, when it was turned into a special economic zone and therefore does not have many historical attractions.

We visited Splendid China, a cultural centre where we watched the ancient battle field where Chinese emperors and generals fought using horses re-enacted. We also watched musical plays about Chinese customs, their history and legends.

Away from the city, we visited the public beach at Dameisha on the China Sea. It has white sands and fresh fish that remind you of the East African coastal towns of Malindi and Dar es Salaam.

Another tourist attraction in the city is the Window on the World, where the rest of the world is recreated for Chinese people to know what happens globally, and Happy Valley, an amusement park for children.

Shenzhen has more non-local people than any city in China. They come from other provinces as well as from other parts of the world, which has made the city one of the most expensive in China to live in.

In recent years, Shenzhen has made a name for itself as China’s Silicon Valley — a magnet for tech startups. It is home to Chinese tech giants such as Tencent and Huawei Technologies, as well as drone maker DJI and smartphone manufacturer OnePlus. The city also accounts for half of the country’s international patent applications.

To make the city more international, Shenzhen has English translations at many of its public places, including restaurant menus.

I admired the thriving entrepreneurial spirit in Shenzhen. Our hosts, Huawei, not only took the visitors through the technology the tech giant is spearheading, but also gave us a taste of Shenzhen and its spirit.

The traffic in Shenzhen is monitored on the road, from tunnel to tunnel, and in neighbourhoods, by CCTV cameras.

Although government clampdowns on social media are a commonplace, Shenzhen is a role model for many of our cities.