Its nominal GDP has surpassed neighboring cities of Guangzhou and Hong Kong and is now among the top ten cities with the largest economies in the world. Shenzhen is ranked as an Alpha- ( global first-tier) city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.
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It is the home to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, one of the largest stock exchanges in the world by market capitalization and the Guangdong Free-Trade Zone. In thirty years, the city's economy and population boomed and has since emerged as a hub for technology, international trade, and finance. In the early 1980s, economic reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping resulted in the city becoming the first special economic zone of China due to its close proximity to Hong Kong, attracting foreign direct investment and migrants searching for opportunities.
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Due to the completion of a train station that was the last stop on the Mainland Chinese section of the railway between Guangzhou and Kowloon, Shenzhen's economy grew and became a market town and later a city by 1979, absorbing Bao'an County for the next decade. The southern portion of Bao'an County was seized by the British after the Opium Wars and became Hong Kong, while the village of Shenzhen was situated on the border. Shenzhen roughly follows the administrative boundaries of Bao'an County, which was established since imperial times. Shenzhen is a global center in technology, research, manufacturing, business and economics, finance, tourism and transportation, and the Port of Shenzhen is the world's fourth busiest container port.
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With a population of 17.56 million as of 2020, Shenzhen is the fourth most populous city proper in China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province of Guangdong, bordering Hong Kong to the south, Dongguan to the north, and Huizhou to the northeast. Shenzhen ( / ˌ ʃ ɛ n ˈ dʒ ɛ n/ / ʃ ɛ n ˈ ʒ ɛ n/ Chinese: 深圳 pinyin: Shēnzhèn Mandarin pronunciation: ( listen)), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China.