Shenzhen and Hong Kong: The Sibling Cities in Chin...

Shenzhen and Hong Kong: The Sibling Cities in China’s New Era

Both Shenzhen and Hong Kong are development hubs for international brands through strategic partnerships with institutions like Shenzhen Polytechnic University and Hong Kong’s Science and Technology Park

Monica Cheru—Managing Editor

At first glance, they don’t even look like they belong to one family. One is young, sprawling, and sleek. The other is older, denser, and vertical. Shenzhen and Hong Kong, once split by Britain’s imperialistic autocracy, are now locked in an intricate embrace of competition, cooperation, and quiet reconciliation.

Shenzhen—the audacious experiment born of Deng Xiaoping’s resolve—is a 45-year-old miracle of Chinese willpower. It rose from a fishing village of 30,000 in 1980 to a metropolis of over 17 million today, outpacing even Beijing and Shanghai in per capita GDP. In 2023, it hit US$42,000 per capita—a number that now edges past Hong Kong’s US$40,000.

But numbers alone don’t explain the reversal. Twenty years ago, Hongkongers were the big cousins. They crossed the Lo Wu Bridge with bulging shopping bags—bringing baby formula, luxury goods, and even bedsheets to relatives in the then-scrappy Shenzhen. Today, the bags often travel in the opposite direction.

A woman who regularly travels between the two cities says she is living through an interesting trend reversal.

“I used to shop in Hong Kong for friends in Shenzhen. Baby formula, electronics, even shoes,” says Pearl Lee, a 47-year-old civil servant.

“Now Hong Kong people send me lists of skincare, high-end perfume, and clothes to bring back from Shenzhen. The prices are better, and even the local Chinese ones are getting really good, giving more choice.”

For Pearl, the contrast is stark in another way: space.

“In Hong Kong, I pay HK$19,000 (about US$2,400) for a 400-square-foot flat in Shau Kei Wan. In Shenzhen, a friend pays less than half that for double the space, and it’s brand new, with smart home systems and a greenbelt outside,” she says.

The City That Can Sprawl vs. The One That Must Stack

**A tourist gets immersed in the origins of the city at the museum that chronicles the Shenzhen Speed story**

Shenzhen’s advantage was its blank slate. It could grow out around the villages, not just up, leaving room to breathe. Today, it boasts over 1,200 parks, a vast green belt around Nanshan, and a new zero-carbon district near Qianhai. It is a builder’s dream—zoning laws redesigned annually, architecture schools working directly with government, and autonomous buses in trial zones.

By contrast, Hong Kong’s legacy is its geography—and its past. Cramped between the harbor and the hills, it stacked itself skyward. Today in 2025, more than 7% of the population lives in subdivided flats, some barely two meters wide.

HKMA makes $1b EM infrastructure push - Companies - News | FinanceAsia

Yet Hong Kong still retains and is growing its gravitas. The international financial hub, handling nearly 70% of global offshore Renminbi transactions, has developed its unique east and west identity into a powerful asset. The Trump tariffs and rising Middle East conflicts are driving investment managers to seek safe haven in Hong Kong.

According to finance.sina.com, Hong Kong’s average daily trading volume of HK$242.3 billion in the first five months of 2025 is double that of 2024, while 2025’s IPO proceeds of HK$773.46 billion in the first five months nearly matched 2024’s full-year total. Notable debuts include CATL’s H-share listing, which became the world’s largest IPO of the year, attracting top global investors like Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund.

Speaking to CNBC recently, Richard Harris, CEO of Port Shelter Investment Management, said he believes Hong Kong is and will continue to be one of the best global markets in 2025.

The University of Hong Kong and Science and Technology Park in the New Territories are now magnets for US-Chinese research partnerships, especially as Silicon Valley eyes less risky platforms amid Trump’s economic nationalism.

The housing of the recently launched International Organization for Mediation further positions Hong Kong as a trusted destination. IOMed is also set to ignite a new legal industry-driven growth.

Colonial Shadows and Lingering Ironies

Hong Kong holds onto its colonial past with names like Victoria Harbour, Prince Edward Station, and Queen’s Road Central. Dozens of elite schools still bear British titles—Diocesan, St. Paul’s, and King George V. Even the Victoria Prison, once the site of hangings and British penal enforcement, has been turned into a tourist spot—its dark history an unending indictment of the British Empire’s atrocities against local populations.

Abigail Lee says the colonial heredity is pervasive, as besides speaking Cantonese rather than Mandarin, her name immediately marks her as a Hong Kong citizen. “In the mainland I would be Li Mingzhu,” she says.

The irony is sharp. While Western powers criticize China’s integration of Hong Kong, they have not bothered to understand the two systems concept. Hong Kong remains a city-state to all intents, with its own laws, an independent monetary authority, and immigration controls. It is only the foreign policy that is centralized in Beijing.

Two Undersides of the Dream

Neither city is without scars.

Shenzhen, for all its innovation, wrestles with anxiety, isolation, and burnout. The suicide rate among young professionals rose sharply between 2020 and 2024, with local reports citing nearly 15 suicides per 100,000—above the national average. The city’s speed, while thrilling, often leaves its youth emotionally adrift.

Hong Kong, on the other hand, struggles with rising crime. Petty theft, cyber scams, and financial frauds have surged post-pandemic. In 2023 alone, police recorded over 80,000 crimes, a 30% jump from pre-pandemic levels.

From Rivalry to Rhyme

While Shenzhen was China’s answer to the loss of Hong Kong as a gateway to the world, today the two cities are not rivals but rather a family reunion in progress.

Young mainland travelers who call themselves “Special Forces” have found their own way of making the best of both worlds in the two adjoining cities. They choose to be based in Shenzhen and take day trips to enjoy Hong Kong, riding on the Greater Bay Area plan, championed by Beijing, which seeks to dissolve the hard boundaries through measures including seamless transport—like the high-speed rail that cuts travel to 14 minutes.

On the business side, there are initiatives like joint tax zones, startup incubators, and digital payment integration knitting the two cities closer so they complement, not compete. Shenzhen is the engineer writing code, while Hong Kong is the banker-cum-lawyer crafting international contracts.

Imperialism once divided them into colonial and communist, capitalist and command. In 2025, they are proof that binaries no longer fit as they look at each other to build forward.