From fishing village to bustling metropolis

HONG KONG: If Peter Pun had put a bet on how large Shenzhen would grow, it's more likely than not he would have lost it.

When the then director of planning of Hong Kong first visited Shenzhen, in 1979, as an expert to train city planners, it was a fishing village. And the authorities were planning to develop it into a city of 2 million people by 2000.

He thought then that that was too big a population. But he underestimated the strength of the mainland, the power of reform and the dynamism the new city would bring to the concept of special economic zone in a socialist society.