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Shenzhen is one of China’s Miracles. Here’s Why!

In 1975 the sleepy fishing village of Shenzhen had a population of under 3000 people. It was across the bay from the British Colony of Hong Kong. Today the city of Shenzhen including it’s ‘burbs is now almost 40 million people. Below is a picture of Shenzhen as seen from our plane as we are leaving on the flight to Hangzhou.

Shenzhen is China’s Silicone Valley, On Steroids!

in 1980, The Chinese government designated that Shenzhen would become the Silicone Valley of the World.They poured money into Shenzhen transforming the sleepy village to one of the world’s Mega Cities. What is a mega city, read more.

In SZ you will find Apple, Google, Huwawei, Foxconn and 1000’s of factories and companies that supply the electronics with every conceivable, part, piece, gadget and electronic widget.

As a result when you go to trade shows and factory visits in Shenzhen you will come across just about any technology or electronic device known to mankind.

As an example, the factory’s that produce a widget as part of a piece of the new I Phone 12 or Samsung TV will also produce widgets for the promotional products industry. The same factory that makes Apple air buds also makes an unbranded version of the same product for a fraction of the cost. This is why we are here.

“Factory’s that produce a widget as part of a piece of the new I Phone 12 also produce widgets for the promotional products industry. The factory that makes Apple air buds also makes an unbranded product very similar in look and sound for a fraction of the cost. This is why we are here!”

Trade Show in Shenzhen. What did we see!

The trade show on Shenzhen, although only 20 miles away from Hong Kong show is a world away from what we see in Hong Kong.

The reasons for this are varied but are worth knowing about.

First reason: Not everyone who lives in China can easily visit Hong Kong (HK). HK is a former British colony that in 1997 was returned to China. China, which at the time was not the economic juggernaut it is now, then made Hong Kong an exclusive economic zone (finance).

In 1997, China was also coming off of a lot of bad press and the world was watching.

If mainland China had immediately opened up HK to the rest of China they (the government) were afraid that too many mainland Chinese would move to HK and many would escape to the west to places like Vancouver, Seattle, Los Angeles, London etc.

So for the last 20 plus years, if you’re a mainland Chinese you need a visa to leave China to visit HK. A simple way to imagine this is to think of Seattle as HK and to visit or work a trade show you need to cross a hard border (fences etc) from the rest of the USA and have a pre-approved government short term visa for your visit to Seattle.

Second reason: The cost of a booth plus all of the travel, hotels etc in HK are about 3 times the price of showing in Shenzhen a mere 20 miles away.

As a result what we see at the Shenzhen trade show is a little more raw and varied. There are always factories (and over 60,000 booths) at this show that show nowhere else in the world.