Shenzhen: Fishing Village to Major Port

Shenzhen is the city in which Shaling was found and lived until we adopted her. One of my fellow adoptive families found this nifty link to a page of pictures displaying the absolutely incredible growth that Shenzhen City has experienced over the last 4 decades. I had previously learned that in the 1970s, Shenzhen was a small fishing village and that by 2010 had over 9 million people. It turns out, they have closer to 12 million people. Shenzhen greatly benefitted when China designated it as a special economic zone, allowing a bit more freedom and encouragement for economic growth than other areas of China.

It's worth checking out the entire page of photos, but here are two of the most intriguing ones:

This one is of Shenzhen, showing mostly agricultural areas, around 1980:


Here is one of several photos of modern day Shenzhen, which apparently has become the second busiest port in China: