The city of Shenzhen is one of the most striking examples of China’s super-rapid development in recent decades. As recently as 1955, it was just a collection of fishing villages in the Pearl River Delta between Hong Kong and Guangzhou (Canton), with an estimated 5,000 residents. The name “Shenzhen” meant “deep drainage ditch.” It was nowheresville, a patch of emptiness only distinguished by proximity to better-known cities. In American terms, a patch of Long Island that was mostly empty lots.

In 1980, as part of the “Reform and Opening Up” policy building a market economy to help develop China after Mao’s depredations, Deng Xiaoping established this strategically located patch of coastline as China’s first “Special Economic Zone,” allowing foreign companies to invest and build there on preferential terms. The then-governor of Guangdong, Xi Zhongxun (a political ally of Deng’s who had previously been purged and jailed under Mao) was an early advocate for Shenzhen’s SEZ status as well. His son, Xi Jinping, is of course the current ruler of China.

Shenzhen’s first skyscraper was built (unprecedentedly fast) in 1982, becoming the tallest building in China. Migrant laborers flocked from across the impoverished Chinese mainland to the new hard but relatively high-paying jobs in rapidly-multiplying Shenzhen factories, and Shenzhen had 175,000 residents by 1985. “Shenzhen speed” became common slang for rapid construction.

As a new development on the coast, Shenzhen has also invested heavily in becoming a “sponge city” to build resilience to climate disasters and sea level rise. An integrated development plan, heavily based on the pioneering work of Chinese urban water management expert Kongjian Yu, has made Shenzhen a “garden city,” with extensive green spaces and protected wetlands on large stretches of the coastline helping to absorb excess water during floods.

Today, Shenzhen’s combination of being a world-leader in electrotech and a pioneer of city-scale nature based solutions for climate adaptation has led to the “Shenzhen model” being a buzzword in international development.