China's efforts to develop Shenzhen into a global city have been impressive if nothing else. In merely a few decades, the formerly small manufacturing center has been transformed into a major city and the lynchpin of China's globalization strategy.
As a visitor in Shenzhen, the first impression might be of awe in witnessing how new the built environment seems and how much development is pushing outward along the city's edge. Development has taken place at a furious pace--known as Shenzhen speed--as the State has implemented its meticulous plans for a global city. These plans have taken an international approach, borrowing best practices in design and planning from around the world.
But the image of a perfectly planned global city starts to stray as one journeys out toward the city edge. The formal top-down development that has transformed the city center is meeting resistance as the informal built environment persists in areas where the State continues to push for redevelopment.
China's strategy assumes that the built environment is one of the most important factors in developing a legitimate global city. Thus, they are adamant in squashing the resistance of informal development to protect the continuous form of the new city. However, could it be that the persistence of the informal spaces signals their role as important assets in these communities? Global cities are just as much about function and linkage as they are about form.
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