摘要：Walking along the 25-kilometer-long Shennan Boulevard — one of Shenzhen’s major arterial thoroughfares — takes Wang Guofu down mem

//The glittering nightscape of Shenzhen’s Nanshan district. (PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Walking along the 25-kilometer-long Shennan Boulevard — one of Shenzhen’s major arterial thoroughfares — takes Wang Guofu down memory lane. With the cityscape unfolding before him, he reminisces about its remarkable transformation, recalling how his fate has been intertwined with the metropolis in its 45-year-long history as one of China’s pioneering special economic zones (SEZs).

行驶在全长25.6公里的深南大道上，王国富的思绪不禁飘回过去。眼前不断铺展的城市风貌，让他回忆起深圳45年来的惊人蜕变，也想起自己的命运如何与这座中国经济特区的发展紧密交织。

The 58-year-old factory worker left his hometown in Shangrao — a city in eastern Jiangxi province — in search of greener pastures in Shenzhen in 1992 following in the footsteps of an adventurous friend.

1992年，这位58岁的工厂工人在朋友的介绍之下离开江西上饶，来到深圳寻找更好的发展机会。

“I knew next to nothing about Shenzhen at the time,” says Wang. “All I knew was that it’s near Hong Kong and that, as my friend put it, Shenzhen was a place to seek a fortune.”

“那时候我对深圳几乎一无所知，” 王国富说。“只知道它离香港近，并且是个能‘淘金’的地方。”

After setting foot in the southern town in Guangdong province, he realized it was far more than that. “In Shenzhen, everyone worked with energy and drive. It was like they were building their homes,” he says.

但踏上这片广东南部的土地后，他发现这里远不止于此：“在深圳，每个人工作都充满干劲，就像在建设自己的家一样。”

Shenzhen’s inherent spirit of entrepreneurship and inclusiveness emboldened Wang’s resolve to bring his family and settle down there. Today, his daughter works at a financial technology firm in the city. “I’m fortunate that my family has been able to grow up together with Shenzhen,” he says.

深圳与生俱来的创业精神与包容氛围，让王国富下定决心接来家人、在此定居。如今，他的女儿在深圳一家金融科技公司工作。“很幸运，我的家人能和深圳一起成长。”

Wang’s story is woven into the tapestry of tens of thousands of workers who have contributed to Shenzhen’s early development as one of the country’s first four SEZs, and whose second generation has moved on to sink their roots into the city, continuing to contribute to its growth.

王国富的故事，是无数劳动者共同经历的缩影。作为中国首批四个经济特区之一，深圳早期发展离不开数以万计劳动者的付出；如今，他们的下一代在此扎根，继续为城市发展贡献力量。

The vast opportunities Shenzhen has created for generations of Chinese residents mirror the boomtown’s dramatic industrial evolution and shifting identity over time. In the 1980s and early 1990s, manufacturing, construction and trade were the lifeblood of Shenzhen’s economy. Leveraging its proximity to Hong Kong, along with low land and labor costs, Shenzhen thrived on processing trade — a model that propelled rapid growth, but left it lingering at the lower end of the global value chain, with local workers reaping only a small share of the gains.

深圳为一代又一代中国人创造的广阔机遇，也映射出这座“机遇之城” 产业的剧烈变革与城市定位的迭代升级。20世纪80年代至90年代初，制造业、建筑业和贸易是深圳经济的支柱。凭借毗邻香港的区位优势，以及低廉的土地和劳动力成本，深圳通过加工贸易实现快速发展 —— 但这种模式也让深圳长期处于全球价值链低端，本地劳动者的收益十分有限。

According to official statistics, the value of processing trade in Shenzhen accounted for roughly 72 percent of the city’s total export value and 76 percent of total import value in 1990. The number of processing trade-related enterprises surged to almost 8,000 in 1994, with some 1 million people employed in the sector, including Wang.

根据官方统计数据，1990年深圳加工贸易额占全市出口总额的比重约为72%，占全市进口总额的比重约为76%。1994年，加工贸易相关企业增至近8000家，该领域就业人数约100万。王国富便是其中之一。

Today, the land of opportunity has grown hand in hand with Shenzhen’s meteoric rise as a hub for finance, technology and innovation. It is home to over 25,000 national-level high-tech enterprises, including tech giants Huawei, Tencent and DJI. The number of international patent applications made through the Patent Cooperation Treaty in Shenzhen has topped Chinese mainland cities for 21 consecutive years.

如今，随着深圳跃升为金融、科技与创新中心，这片“机遇之地” 也随之不断发展。目前，深圳拥有超过2.5万家国家级高新技术企业，包括华为、腾讯、大疆等科技巨头；PCT国际专利申请量连续21年居全国首位。

The transformation reflects a broader trend in Shenzhen, where emphasis has shifted from labor-intensive industries to knowledge-driven sectors. The evolution has also redefined the SEZ’s identity, shifting it from the “world’s factory” to a “cradle of innovation”.

这种转变印证了深圳发展的大趋势——城市重心从劳动密集型产业转向知识驱动型产业。这一演进也重塑了经济特区的定位—— 从 “世界工厂” 蜕变为 “创新摇篮”。

Like many other people of her age, the younger Wang found her footing in the new ecosystem. “The older generation was chasing fortune. We, the younger generation, are chasing something bigger — changing the way people live, just like Shenzhen has changed ours,” she says.

和许多同龄人一样，王国富的女儿在新的产业生态中找到了自己的位置。“父辈们当年是为了‘淘金’，我们这一代则在追求更有意义的事 —— 改变人们的生活方式，就像深圳改变了我们的生活一样。”

//The contrasting views of Shenzhen’s Luohu district in 1985 and in the present day illustrate the city’s profound transformation. (LIU TINGFANG AND LUO XUAN / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Shi Kun, director of the department of regional development and planning at Shenzhen-based think tank the China Development Institute, says, “When it comes to Shenzhen providing development opportunities for workers of different eras, the greatest chance lies in industrial opportunities. In other words, workers who come to Shenzhen can find jobs and earn money — this is the most fundamental aspect, which requires the development of industries that keep pace with the times.

综合开发研究院（中国·深圳）区域发展规划所所长时鲲表示，深圳为不同时代的劳动者所提供的最大机遇在于产业机遇。“来深圳的人能找到工作、赚到钱，这是最根本的，而这需要与时俱进的产业发展作为支撑。”

“Beyond this, Shenzhen now also places great emphasis on supporting facilities, particularly comprehensive cultural, educational and healthcare support for knowledge-intensive talents,” he adds.

“除此之外，深圳现在也非常重视配套设施建设，尤其是为知识密集型人才提供全方位的文化、教育和医疗保障。”

There is also a fundamental urban culture in the city that underpins the provision of opportunities for workers, according to Shi. “Shenzhen has a well-known saying: ‘Once you come, you are a Shenzhen local.’ This saying actually embodies the positive cycle of mutual success between the city and individuals,” he says.

Since Shenzhen’s birth as an SEZ in 1980, its name has been synonymous with “economic miracle”, with its GDP having skyrocketed from 270 million yuan ($37.58 million) in 1980 to 3.68 trillion yuan last year, roughly equivalent to the economic size of the United Arab Emirates.

支撑深圳为劳动者提供机遇的，还有其独特的城市文化根基。“深圳有句广为人知的话：‘来了就是深圳人’。这句话其实体现了城市与个人相互成就的良性循环，”他补充道。 自1980年成为经济特区以来，“深圳” 一词数十年来始终与 “经济奇迹” 紧密相连：1980年，深圳地区生产总值（GDP）仅 2.7亿元。去年，这一数字已攀升至3.68万亿元。

Behind Shenzhen’s economic boom lies its bold drive for institutional innovation. As a trailblazer of China’s reform and opening-up, the city has blazed an unprecedented path — one that offers a replicable template for the rest of the nation.

深圳经济腾飞的背后，是其大胆推进制度创新的决心。作为中国改革开放的“试验田”，深圳走出了一条前所未有的发展道路，为全国提供了可复制、可推广的经验。

Shenzhen’s astonishing shift from a tiny fishing village to a world technology hub in the past four-and-a-half decades testifies to China’s landmark reform and opening-up drive, shaped by domestic imperatives, as well as international opportunities, says Tao Yitao, former director of the China Center for Special Economic Zone Research at Shenzhen University.

深圳大学中国经济特区研究中心前主任陶一桃表示，过去45年间，深圳从小渔村崛起为全球科技枢纽，这一惊人蜕变印证了中国改革开放的飞速进程 —— 这一进程既受国内发展需求驱动，也得益于国际机遇。

She recalls that the mainland’s economy was still budding in the late 1970s, with a broad consensus for change, and Shenzhen became a testing ground for bold experiments.

她回忆道，20世纪70年代末，中国内地经济尚处于起步阶段，全社会对改革形成广泛共识，深圳由此成为大胆探索的 “试验场”。

Internationally, the 1970s saw global industrial transfer, with labor-intensive industries moving from Japan and Germany to the “Four Asian Tigers” — South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Shenzhen, leveraging its geographical proximity to Hong Kong and low labor and land costs, was a prime beneficiary. The establishment of Sino-US diplomatic ties in 1979 created a more favorable international environment for its development, says Tao, who is also dean of the Belt and Road Research Institute (Shenzhen) for International Cooperation and Development.

从国际环境来看，1970年代全球产业转移浪潮中，劳动密集型产业从日本、德国向韩国、新加坡、中国香港和中国台湾这 “亚洲四小龙” 转移。而深圳凭借毗邻香港的区位优势，以及低廉的劳动力和土地成本，成为这一浪潮的重要受益者。陶一桃指出，1979年中美建交也为深圳发展创造了更有利的国际环境。

“Although Shenzhen’s economic takeoff began with processing trade, it didn’t end up there. By the 1990s, the local authorities had recognized the limitations of low-end manufacturing and decided to pivot its economy toward high-tech, laying a solid ground for its current tech hub status,” she says.

“尽管深圳的经济腾飞始于加工贸易，但并未止步于此。到1990年代，地方政府已意识到低端制造业的局限性，决定推动经济向高新技术产业转型，为如今的科技枢纽地位奠定了坚实基础，” 她说。

To push Shenzhen toward assuming a greater role in the nation’s pursuit of high-quality development and deeper integration into the world economy, the central government issued a document in June to further deepen comprehensive reform and accelerate opening-up and innovation.The guideline outlined concrete steps to break through institutional barriers in education, technology and talent development, and strengthen the deep integration of innovation, industrial, capital and talent chains.It also serves as an updated version of a directive in 2020 that focused on supporting Shenzhen as a pilot area for implementing comprehensive reform.

为推动深圳在国家高质量发展和深度融入世界经济中发挥更大作用，今年6月，中共中央办公厅、国务院办公厅发布《关于深入推进深圳综合改革试点深化改革创新扩大开放的意见》，提出在破解教育科技人才领域体制机制障碍、强化创新链产业链资金链人才链深度融合等方面先行先试。这也是2020 年所发布的《深圳建设中国特色社会主义先行示范区综合改革试点实施方案（2020-2025年）》的升级版。

“The latest document has entrusted Shenzhen with new tasks and missions to advance reform, opening-up and innovative development at a higher starting point, on a higher level and with higher goals,” wrote a group of researchers at the China Development Institute.

“最新文件赋予深圳新的任务与使命，推动其在更高起点、更高水平、更高目标上推进改革开放和创新发展。” 综合开发研究院（中国·深圳）的研究人员在一篇文章中写道。

However, it has not been smooth sailing against a backdrop of mounting geopolitical tensions, rising protectionism and unilateralism.

然而，在当前地缘政治局势紧张、保护主义和单边主义抬头的背景下，深圳的发展并非一帆风顺。

“China-US trade frictions and global economic uncertainties pose serious challenges to Shenzhen’s economy, including mounting trade barriers, supply chain disruptions and tech restrictions. To offset the impact, the city needs to accelerate industrial upgrading, explore emerging markets engaged in the Belt and Road Initiative, and boost research and development to achieve tech self-reliance,” says Tao.

“中美贸易摩擦和全球经济不确定性给深圳经济带来挑战，包括贸易壁垒加剧、供应链中断、科技限制升级等。” 陶一桃强调，“为抵消这些影响，深圳需加快产业升级，开拓‘一带一路’沿线新兴市场，加大研发投入以实现科技自立自强。”

Shenzhen is pulling out all the stops to develop strategic emerging businesses and future industries as the answer to forging another “economic miracle” in the coming decades amid a volatile global landscape. It has launched policies to develop and bolster 20 strategic emerging sectors and nurture eight industries of the future.

深圳正全力以赴发展战略性新兴产业和未来产业，力求再创经济辉煌。目前，深圳已出台政策，培育发展壮大“20+8”产业集群，即发展以先进制造业为主体的20个战略性新兴产业集群，前瞻布局8大未来产业。

The strategic emerging sectors cover telecommunications, semiconductors, intelligent terminals and sensors, software, intelligent robots, precision instruments and equipment, new energy, intelligent connected vehicles, new materials, high-end medical equipment and biomedicine.Future industries will embrace synthetic biology, blockchain, cells and genes, space technology, brain science and brain-like intelligence, and quantum information.“With continued focus on technological innovation, Shenzhen is poised to take the lead in emerging sectors such as artificial intelligence, big data, new energy and biotechnology. Through deeper collaboration with Hong Kong, Shenzhen will work hand in glove with the special administrative region to become a global financial hub,” says Tao.

“只要持续聚焦科技创新，深圳有望在人工智能、大数据、新能源、生物技术等新兴领域占据领先地位。通过与香港深化合作，深圳将与香港特别行政区携手，共同打造全球金融枢纽。” 陶一桃表示。

Shi considers “innovation and globalization” as the two keywords defining Shenzhen’s next 45 years.

时鲲将“创新” 与 “全球化” 视为定义深圳未来 45 年发展的两大关键词。

“Shenzhen has basically achieved the status where people immediately associate it with sci-tech innovation when the city is mentioned. In the future, it can further strengthen and elevate this advantage to make it more prominent,” he says.

“现在提到深圳，人们基本都会立刻联想到科技创新。未来，深圳可进一步巩固并提升这一优势，让其更加突出。”

“As for globalization, it represents Shenzhen’s ability to gather global elements such as talent, goods and data. Moving forward, Shenzhen is poised to develop into a globalized international metropolis.”

“至于全球化，这体现了深圳汇聚全球人才、商品、数据等要素的能力。未来，深圳有望发展成为一座高度全球化的国际大都市。”

For the younger Wang, however, what drew her most to work and live in Shenzhen was not just its promising industry outlook but, more importantly, the profound sense of belonging the city fosters.

不过，对王国富的女儿而言，吸引她在深圳工作生活的，不仅是这座城市广阔的产业前景，更重要的是其所营造的强烈归属感。

“Shenzhen isn’t just a place of opportunity. It’s where I call home,” she says.

“深圳不只是一座机遇之城，更是我的家。”（中国日报记者 周沫）

来源：综合开发研究院