Shenzhen, China. Shenzhen is preparing to host the APEC Summit on Nov. 18-19, offering the southern Chinese metropolis an opportunity to showcase to the world how four decades of extraordinary growth have transformed it into a critical link in global supply chains, a technology powerhouse and an increasingly attractive city for young people seeking a high quality of life.

Despite its emergence as China's answer to Silicon Valley, Shenzhen's remarkable transformation remains relatively unfamiliar to many people outside China.

The city's GDP reached RMB 3.87 trillion ($576.5 billion) in 2025, while its industrial output has ranked among the highest in China. Shenzhen has also emerged as the country's leading city for international merchandise trade, reflecting its deeply embedded role in global supply chains.

“There is no supply chain without Shenzhen. There is no product without some components from Shenzhen,” American businessman Taylor Ogan said during a discussion ahead of the Asia-Pacific Media Forum in Shenzhen on Friday.

Ogan said many people overseas know little about Shenzhen beyond its proximity to Hong Kong -- something he finds particularly surprising given the city's importance to global manufacturing and technology.

More than three years ago, he moved his business from Boston to Shenzhen, a decision that initially shocked his friends and family.

“Boston is a great city of thinkers, but Shenzhen is where thinkers become makers, and that's a key difference. Not a lot is actually made in Silicon Valley anymore,” Ogan said.

Shenzhen was once widely associated with the “factory of the world” model, producing enormous volumes of goods for international brands. Manufacturing remains fundamental to its economy, but the nature of that manufacturing has changed considerably.

Companies based in Shenzhen are increasingly engaged in research and development, product design and technological innovation while retaining access to an extraordinarily dense manufacturing and supplier network.

“I think something that is really interesting to me is, when I meet these Shenzhen companies, they talk about their entire supply chain within a one-hour driving radius. That's crazy. There's no other city in the world that can actually do that,” Ogan said.

Official data illustrate the scale of that industrial ecosystem. Shenzhen's gross industrial output and industrial value added among major enterprises have ranked first among Chinese cities for four consecutive years.

Its industries are also moving rapidly up the technology ladder. In 2025, strategic emerging industries accounted for 43% of Shenzhen's GDP, while high-tech manufacturing represented nearly 60% of industrial value added among major enterprises.

APEC Puts Shenzhen in the Global Spotlight
Hosting APEC will provide Shenzhen with an unusually prominent international stage.

Shenzhen will become the third Chinese city to host the APEC gathering after Shanghai in 2001 and Beijing in 2014.

Ogan sees each host city as symbolic of a different stage in China's economic development.

“The first was Shanghai, and that was China telling the world a China that is opening up. The next time was in Beijing, and that was China telling the world that it can lead,” he said.

“This, in November 2026, Shenzhen is hosting, and that's China showing the world that it can lead through innovation.”

For Ogan, the summit may also mark the moment when Shenzhen finally becomes better understood internationally.

“We've discussed that quite a lot of people in the West don't know about Shenzhen, and it's shocking,” he said.

“You can look these things up, and still not that many people know about Shenzhen, how modern it is. And basically, Shenzhen has kind of been China's secret up until now. That changes this year, and now the whole world will know Shenzhen.”

From 30,000 People to a Global Metropolis
Forty-six years after becoming a special economic zone, Shenzhen remains a manufacturing powerhouse. But the city that will greet APEC leaders in November is vastly different from the export-oriented factory center that first propelled its growth.

Shenzhen's transformation is particularly striking given how recently the city emerged.

In 1980, when Shenzhen became China's first special economic zone, it was a small border city with a population of around 30,000 and GDP of just RMB 270 million.

By the end of 2025, its permanent population had reached 18.24 million. The average age of its residents is around 32.5 years, reflecting the city's ability to attract younger workers, entrepreneurs and technology professionals from across China.

“Now, the city has grown into a modern international metropolis,” said Shan Liang, director of the Shenzhen Urban Planning and Land Development Research Center.

Shenzhen's rise has been built not only around factories, technology companies and international trade. City planners have also sought to preserve natural spaces while accommodating rapid population growth and urban development.

At a time when the city was expanding rapidly and land values were rising steadily, Shenzhen moved early to establish ecological boundaries. It became the first city in China to delineate a basic ecological control line, according to Shan.

“Since its implementation two decades ago, the basic ecological control line has protected more than 95% of the city's ecological patches, including mountains, forests, and country parks,” Shan told the forum.

Those natural areas have since become some of Shenzhen's most valuable urban assets.

For city planners, environmental protection is not necessarily in conflict with economic development. Instead, the quality of the urban environment can help attract the highly skilled people needed to sustain an innovation-driven economy.

“A healthy environment makes for a better life. A better life attracts talented people, whose energy in turn drives urban innovation and development,” Shan said.

That philosophy is increasingly important for a city whose economic competitiveness depends as much on attracting engineers, researchers, entrepreneurs and other skilled workers as it does on building factories.

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