What kind of city is Shenzhen?

What kind of city is Shenzhen? Photography: Gong Zhiyuan

Shenzhen's 40-year modernization practice is a model and forerunner for China people to yearn for a better life. By carrying out reform and opening up, drawing lessons from and gathering human civilization, Shenzhen will become the "thermometer" of China modernization and the "wiring board" of internationalization and opening up.

"Shenzhen is vitality!" This is one of the key words in the curatorial work of Shenzhen Urban Planning Museum, and it can also be said to be a comment on Shenzhen's achievements in the past 40 years. So where does the vitality of this city come from? ()

The yearning for a better life is the instinct of everyone in China and the government's commitment to China society.

At that time, people who dared to change their living conditions and yearned for a better life came to Shenzhen from all directions, gathering courage and courage, which constituted the spiritual source of Shenzhen's vitality.

In the 40 years of reform and opening up, Shenzhen has introduced many new concepts and tried to redefine the meanings of common nouns, which is the cultural source of Shenzhen's vitality.

Shenzhen Bureau of City Administration

Shenzhen, a city that redefines the value of "time".

"Time is money and efficiency is life." This is a subversion of traditional values. Shenzhen takes the city as a platform to gather young people, release their passion, show the cultural mentality of young cities and precipitate the value of Shenzhen time.

Shenzhen, which has been constantly shaped by modernization, has gone through forty years. People of the same age in this city are entering the age of no doubt, and this city is still young.

Forty years of "Shenzhen time" contains everything. For capital, time is money; For people, time is life; As far as social civilization is concerned, Shenzhen time, which has multiple added values, redefines the word "people" through the definition of time, making people's lives more meaningful. The "time is money" in those days has added the meaning of "time is life" today.

The city is constantly upgrading, and Shenzhen people's sense of value is upgrading, which proves the possibility of China's modernization to liberate human nature and innovate policy and mechanism, and has accumulated rare tolerance, responsibility, affection, dedication and humanistic spirit, leaving an irreversible progress history of Shenzhen for 40 years. People use "a city that became famous overnight" and "a fast-growing city" to describe the miracle of Shenzhen's urban construction. "It's from Shenzhen!" It shows the vitality of Shenzhen society and indicates the uncertainty of the future of this immigrant city. ...

Photography: Liang Hao

Shenzhen, a city that redefines "ecology".

More than 20 million people were born with 30,000 kinds of animals and plants. The natural environment of mountains and seas embraces cities, and people also respect nature. Shenzhen shows the spatial pattern of the birth of man and nature. The natural ecology of Shenzhen is natural, but the social ecology is artificial. Modern civilized cities and villages in the city coexist iteratively. A relatively free atmosphere of scientific and technological innovation; Opportunities gained in the convection with the outside world ... People can feel the diversity and vitality of the rainforest society, which is a special cultural attitude and civilized state, and also the result of the continuous formation of knowledge in Shenzhen's modernization exploration.

Due to the society formed by a large number of immigrants, strangers gather together, and their rights and interests for survival and development do not depend on a unified culture. The local national cultural life circle makes the social folk customs diversified. On the premise that * * * shares the same home, immigration has become the knowledge that everyone is kind and concerned about people's livelihood and public welfare. Non-governmental organizations in Shenzhen are active in the fields of natural ecological environment protection and community construction, and practice the city.

Photography: Gong Zhiyuan

Shenzhen, a city that redefines China's modernization.

Forty years ago in China, Shenzhen was the only window for us to observe the modernization of the world today. Being close to Hong Kong makes people feel close to the world, and it also makes the world close to China. Shenzhen's original mission was to transcend ideology by means of economic exploration, and to expand the knowledge of * * * on this basis.

The breath of modern civilization contradicts the values formed by closed China at that time, which makes this fast-developing city constantly carry out the experiment of reform and opening up, trial and error, judgment and choice of right and wrong. All the new attempts in Shenzhen seem reasonable, just like a multi-standard value wiring board, forming an inclusive atmosphere that China did not have at that time. China in Shenzhen has opened a window and a door to the world, and Shenzhen has become the most fully developed city and the most effective society for modernization and enlightenment among the "four special economic zones". Forty years' practice is full of choices, opportunities and traps, which is a serious and tense process, but it can also be summarized as: China's modernization and Shenzhen's "skin test".

Photography: Gong Zhiyuan

Shenzhen, an "outrageous" city.

Forty years ago, because of the reform and opening up, Shenzhen had the opportunity to turn to a new value track and temporarily get rid of the shackles of traditional culture. Because of the concession of the system and the tolerance of the society, Shenzhen has become a "field" of modernization with China characteristics, sowing the "seeds" of personal ambition, enterprise and national ideal. There are successes and failures, and the practice of "deviating from the old spectrum" to "relying on the new spectrum" is deviant.

This "exception" also explains why Baoan County with a population of 300,000 can quickly become a super metropolis with a population of more than 20 million in 40 years. In Shenzhen, people tolerate each other and live together. The knowledge of goodness and goodness formed by immigrant culture makes them more willing to believe in contracts and laws. If we first demonstrate the construction of a legal society in Shenzhen, the credibility and enforceability will undoubtedly be the highest. This is the most reliable thing in modernization.

Photography: Gong Zhiyuan

The existence of Shenzhen proves that emancipating the mind and releasing human nature can gather endless energy, which not only promotes the modernization process of China, but also profoundly affects China society. No one can say that he has not been influenced by Shenzhen. Even those who disapprove of reform and opening up and those who have never been to Shenzhen have been deeply influenced and stimulated by Shenzhen. Over the past 40 years, amid various voices of support and opposition, more and more people agree that Shenzhen is a pioneer city in Socialism with Chinese characteristics's modernization.

Forty years' modernization practice in Shenzhen has brought China so close to the modern world for the first time. Let more people in China know what people outside are thinking and doing for the first time; More importantly, let people know the gap between China society and the outside world. Shenzhen is not only a mirror to see oneself clearly, but also a lens to discover others. Shenzhen is like a bean fire in a modern civilized night, which has been burning and extinguished in a bright corner of Lingnan area for 40 years. Nowadays, it is in the situation that a single spark can start a prairie fire, and it has become the forerunner of China's modernization because of its "outrageous".

Photography: Gong Zhiyuan

Shenzhen is a tangled city.

The entanglement of Shenzhen lies in the place where all kinds of contradictions, ideals or disappointments coexist in the face of development. This is the entanglement of the pioneers, which challenges whether the city can maintain the vanguard of thought and behavior.

The entanglement also reflects that Shenzhen society seems to be losing the social atmosphere of breaking through the shackles of the existing system, and the reform has entered the deep water area. Fear of difficulties and inaction reduces the passion of ideals, and people gradually lock the courage to change unreasonable reality in their hearts. In their eyes, "getting used to it" is becoming the new "envelope" of Shenzhen's urban culture and the new "south wall" of institutional innovation. When Shenzhen regarded itself as a high-yield economic field and reveled in the bubble of superficial innovation, its national value gradually faded, and it was not until the central authorities gave Shenzhen Socialism with Chinese characteristics the first demonstration zone that Shenzhen regained its role as a national strategy.

Just like the "southern tour" in 1992, the "first demonstration area" in 20 19 was the choice when the reform was tangled, so Shenzhen once again became a city with a special new task of national modernization to face the complicated domestic and international situation.

Photography: Gong Zhiyuan

Shenzhen, a "mystery" like a pioneer city in China.

Shenzhen, an innovative city with unfinished modernization, is full of uncertainties.

"Shenzhen" means deep ditch. Forty years ago, it was a deep ditch between China and the world. After the unremitting reform and opening up on the grounds of special economic zones, Shenzhen has become a "bridge" after forty years, a credible humanistic bridge connecting China and the world, and a bridge of hope for internationalization and modernization. The world is not what it used to be, and people's desire for a better life keeps pace with the times.

At present, the world has changed, so has China, and the role of Shenzhen as the vanguard of reform and opening up has not changed. The demonstration area of "try first" and the example of a powerful country will make Shenzhen a realistic mapping in the process of China's modernization again.

Shenzhen is a controversial city, with different opinions, which has always been the focus of world attention. As a city with limited land space and ultra-high density (people and things), it will accept and continue to accept all kinds of extraordinary challenges. The use of limited land space is always full of uncertainty and imagination. Between people's ideal and reality for the future, between right and wrong, between left and right, moving forward in disputes, they begin to break into the next strange urban puzzle.

Shenzhen, a young and plastic modern city, is always faced with a "fork in the road" to choose various values. The special task of trying first gives Shenzhen another chance to explore the possibility of modernization with China characteristics, and becomes the news tree and weather vane of China's present and future value trend.

Photography: Gong Zhiyuan

After observing what happened in Shenzhen for 40 years, we can feel the vitality of this city and infer the possible future of China.

Over the past 40 years, Baoan County with a population of 300,000 has changed from quantitative change to qualitative change, which has brought new quantitative changes to a modern city.

-Over the past 40 years, in the practice of modernization initiated by China, many nouns have been given new explanations and definitions here. Such as: humanity, fairness, market, credit, contract, legal system, civilization, failure, success, innovation, community, culture …

Everyone's working and living conditions in Shenzhen are different. "Every life process is a process of establishing its own order." It is also a process of forming public order and good customs in a city. People-oriented, all beings are equal, fair and prosperous, based on the legal system, and innovation as the soul ... Shenzhen is a city that allows people to have their own personality and imagination, so Shenzhen should use this city to carry people's imagination of a better life.

Author | Zhu Rongyuan

Professor-level senior planner

Deputy Chief Planner of China Urban Planning and Design Institute

About the author:

Young and middle-aged experts with outstanding contributions from the Ministry of Construction (1999)

Expert enjoying special allowance from the State Council (2002)

Member of the National Urban Design Expert Committee

Vice Chairman of Urban Planning Society of China Urban Imaging Academic Committee

Member of the Professional Committee of Architecture and Environment of Shenzhen Planning Commission

Academic Committee of Shenzhen-Hong Kong Biennale of Cities and Architecture (2007-20 19)

Source: city PLUS.

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Original title: "What kind of city is Shenzhen? 》