ern part. The northwestern portion is relatively low lying with sea plains along the west coast (SSB, 2002, p 3outheastern part shields it from most typhoon attacks in summer. Shenzhen lies in the sub-tropical maritime climatic zone with an average annual temperature of 22.4 °C. The rainy season spans from May to September and the annual rainfall is 1933 cm.
Keywords: Shenzhen, urban development, planning, socialist market economy
An undulating linear city
Before China’s Open Door Policy in late 1978, Shenzhen was just a sleepy border town lying north of the then British colony, Hong Kong, in southern China (Figure 1). Shenzhen now has an area of 2020 km2 with six districts housing over 4.69 million population1. The SSEZ occupied an area of about 392 km2 with four administrative dis∗ Tel.: +852-2859-2276; fax: +852-25590468; e-mail: meekng@hkucc.hku.hk 1 The official figure for population in 2001 is 4.69 million, with 1.32 million registered residents and 3.37 million temporary residents (SSB, 2002, p 63). However, it was reported in the year 2000 Fifth National Census that the population in Shenzhen was about seven million (Shenzhen Daily, 2001; Guangdong Statistics Bureau, 2002). In other words, there were three million unregistered “floating” population in Shenzhen at the time of the Census.
