Shenzhen, situated just across the border from Hong Kong, is a beautiful coastal garden city in South China. It is a city of sunshine and modernity, where economic development keeps pace with social development, and people live in harmony with nature.

Shenzhen which is the China's first special economic zone established via the patronage of the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping is a pioneering and innovative city. It is in the vanguard of China's reforms and opening up to the rest of the world. In its short history of 27 years, Shenzhen has developed from a small fishing village into a modern city with a gross domestic product (GDP) per capita which gives it premier ranking in China. This is a remarkable achievement, notable in the annals of urbanization, industrialization and modernization across the globe.

Beautiful, Ecological Garden City

Shenzhen has a beautiful, natural environment. The green area of the city, with 16.01 square meters of greenery per person, covers 45 percent of the urban area. Forests cover 47.6 percent of the city's total land area. The city has 442 parks totaling 240.40 hectares. Shenzhen has won awards from domestic and overseas authorities, which include "Nations in Bloom," UNEP's "Global Top 500 Laureate Roll of Honor," "National Hygienic City," "National Model City for Environmental Protection," "Model City for Protection of Ozone Layer," "National Greenery Model City," "National Brilliant Tourism City."

Shenzhen is the "City of Parks." At present, the city has more than 400 parks, scenic zones, and forest parks. By 2010, the number of forest parks in the city will reach 17, which will make up 22.03 percent of the city's total land area.

Asia-Pacific International City, Adjacent to Hong Kong

Downtown Shenzhen is only a 45-minute drive from Hong Kong. The government of Shenzhen plans, over the next 15 years, to modernize Shenzhen in accordance with socialist ideals and to develop the city into a key regional and international metropolis.

More than 13,000 expatriates live and work in Shenzhen on a long-term basis, which has been key to the increasing internationalization of the city. The expatriates come from 111 counties; most are representatives sent by foreign companies to China, employees of foreign-invested enterprises, cultural workers, teachers, and foreign students. In 2005, the number of foreigners who entered the country through various checkpoints in Shenzhen totaled 3.4 million. About 5 percent of the city's residential buildings were purchased by foreigners and people from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

The Central Business District

Shenzhen’s greatest development so far is in the fully built-out Lowu district. In 1996, the city held international competitions to design a proposed CBD and its major buildings. The business district will lie south of the city’s main thoroughfare, the landscaped Shennan Boulevard, while the new City Hall will lie north. Arata Isozaki from Japan designed the multifunctional Cultural Center that will house the library and music hall. A local architect designed an interactive "Children’s Palace" across the plaza.

Japan's Kisho Kurokawa designed an "eco-media corridor" which links the southern mangrove preserves along Shenzhen Bay through the CBD up north to Lianhua mountain. The design of underground parking and ground level retail and street-crossings create a broad park and plaza on the top level, which allows for a seamless pedestrian park-like promenade through the middle. A subway stop will be integrated within the underground level. The eco-media corridor is so called because it puts ecology forefront in the park that dominates the corridor, is the information hub of the city, and provides a multi-modal junction that gives pedestrians a prominent place in the CBD.

Introduction of Shenzhen Association Of Enterprises With Foreign Investemt(SZAEFI)

SZAEFI was founded in 1989 with purpose of serving the business community.SZAEFI provides comprehensive policy information and other services that bridge the government and enterprises to its member enterprises.There are now over 1,700 companies from various sectors as its members.SZAEFI was established close relationship with provincial and municipal(including HongKong,Macao and Taiwan)governments and chambers of commerce all over China as well as in Europe,America and Southease Asia.