Urban development in Shenzhen SEZ

Abstract

The fundamental purpose of establishing a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in China is to attract foreign technology and scientific management in a big way by instituting a special preferential policy so as to serve China's socialist modernisation. The founding of SEZ is an important component of the open policy which is being practised in China. In this article, the author provides firstly the background which the establishment of Shenzhen SEZ was based on, including the historical and geographical conditions and some main indices referring to the population, industrial and agricultural production, finance, tourism and transportation of the SEZ. The major focus of the article is the urban development and urban environment. The author analyses the experiences of urban development with a brief description of what happened and was completed in Shenzhen SEZ and on comprehensive planning, peculiarities of the plan, implementation of the plan, environmental quality in urban areas and the building construction. By using the ideas and viewpoints of some major aspects, the author depicts the experiences in the field of city pattern and structure, land use and administration, urban infrastructure, civil facilities, greenery and residential area layout, and real estate business, summing them up to the point of making special policies. The author also lists several key challenges and recommends solutions to the problems by the challenges.