The Curious History and Beauty of Shenzhen's Urban Villages

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The Chinese megacity of Shenzhen bares all the hallmarks of a surging modern metropolis. Busy (and loud) five-lane motorways weave through islands of glittering glass skyscrapers, rising from podiums filled with designer shops, fronting vast squares and plazas, activated by screen-savvy young professionals fueling the city’s booming tech economy. Such a scene is truly remarkable considering that before 1980, Shenzhen was nothing more than a provincial fishing town of 60,000 people. Today, that figure has risen to 13 million.

This poses the question of how the urban environment accommodated such a rapid population explosion in such a short time. The answer lies in the city’s “Urban Villages,” remarkable manifestations of Shenzhen’s past and present, though likely not of its future.

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Cite: Niall Patrick Walsh. "The Curious History and Beauty of Shenzhen's Urban Villages" 03 Feb 2020. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/932731/the-curious-history-and-beauty-of-shenzhens-urban-villages> ISSN 0719-8884

© Niall Patrick Walsh

探索深圳城中村的奇妙历史

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