Bridget O'Donnell

As you know, I am living in Shenzhen, China. The city is one of China’s Special Economic Zones (SEZs). Without going into too much history, it’s basically a city that was designated by the government to have more flexible economic laws. SEZs were created as part of China’s Economic Reforms (改革开放 or Găigé kāifàng; literally: “The Reform and Opening Up Policy”) of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

I’ve been told by many people here that the Shenzhen as we know it now did not exist 30 years ago. It’s been hard for me to picture this bustling city as a small fishing village.

That is, until I recently discovered these photos of the city from 1980 by Flickr user Leroy W. Demery, Jr.

Residential lane, Shenzhen, 1980, originally uploaded by Leroy W. Demery, Jr. This is a street in the Luohu district, the area I currently live in.

Luohu by night, originally uploaded by flickr.Marcus. This is a shot of Luohu from earlier this year.

View a slideshow of the old Shenzhen photos:

(Residential lane, Shenzhen, 1980, originally uploaded by Leroy W. Demery, Jr. Luohu by night, originally uploaded by flickr.marcus.)

EDIT: My friend Dave points out that all of the dormitories at the University of Michigan are older than Shenzhen. As 中国人 (zhōngguórén: Chinese people) would say, “哇!” (wā: Wow!)

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