Exploring the urban villages of Shenzhen, the Chinese city known for tech

+ Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player Open Navigation Menu --> Newsletters NPR Shop Close Navigation Menu Home News Expand/collapse submenu for News National World Politics Business Health Science Climate Race Culture Expand/collapse submenu for Culture Books Movies Television Pop Culture Food Art & Design Performing Arts Life Kit Gaming Music Expand/collapse submenu for Music Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions Podcasts & Shows Expand/collapse submenu for Podcasts & Shows Daily Morning Edition Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday All Things Considered Up First Here & Now NPR Politics Podcast Featured Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Planet Money Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics Exploring the urban villages of Shenzhen, the Chinese city known for tech NPR's Steve Inskeep visits Shenzhen, a city in southern China, where skyscrapers and urban villages teem with life. World Exploring the urban villages of Shenzhen, the Chinese city known for tech May 14, 20264:45 AM ET Heard on Morning Edition Steve Inskeep Exploring the urban villages of Shenzhen, the Chinese city known for tech Listen &middot; 4:05 4:05 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5817511/nx-s1-9769807" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript NPR's Steve Inskeep visits Shenzhen, a city in southern China, where skyscrapers and urban villages teem with life. Sponsor Message STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Here in Beijing, we're following President Trump's visit to China. And we're also exploring some of the Chinese economy. Chinese exports are at the heart of the U.S.-China relationship, and lately, their rivalry. And in the big exporting city of Shenzhen, we found a hidden factor in China's rise. It's a city of technology where millions of iPhones are made. It shows off its tech talent in a waterfront area called Talent Park.

+ There's the buzz of a drone overhead. Where people can order lunch on their phones and a drone delivers it. (SOUNDBITE OF DRONE BUZZING) INSKEEP: The drone lands on a sort of vending machine. It drops your order in, and you take it out. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Laughter). INSKEEP: Yang Zhongsheng (ph) opened a package for his son. YANG ZHONGSHENG: (Through interpreter) I ordered McDonald's together with my kid. It's pretty convenient. It's my first time. INSKEEP: Shenzhen owes much of its success to tech, but also to something else. Oh, and we've just turned down an extremely narrow alley. Well, street. This is a street. This is one of the city's urban villages where some streets are too narrow for a car. Instead, electric motorbikes race silently at you, leaving you little room to step aside. This is like a video game where you try not to get run over by a motorbike. (SOUNDBITE OF SCOOTER HONKING) INSKEEP: Look up, when you safely can, and you see improvised buildings, tangles of electric wires and a sliver of sky. We walked into one building and up the stairs to talk with Liu He, who works at a cultural center called Handshake 302. These are handshake buildings. What is a handshake building? LIU HE: Do you see that building? We can handshake each other (laughter). INSKEEP: Oh, wait. You just pointed out the window. There's another building two feet away. LIU: (Laughter) Yeah, yeah. We just handshake to another building, but we never do that. (CROSSTALK) INSKEEP: An urban village called Gangxia has plenty of life. Kids play basketball in one of the few open areas. But people live in tiny spaces, such as four adults sharing a one-bedroom apartment. (SOUNDBITE OF SCOOTERS HOOTING) INSKEEP: Here's how these neighborhoods were part of Shenzhen's economic rise. In 1980, there was no city here at all, just rural villages. Then the government made a special economic zone. Fields became factories. Villages became crammed residential areas for workers. Dan Wang is a Chinese economist with the Eurasia Group. DAN WANG: The government could not have built housing fast enough. So they have actually kept a lot of those villages to let them build those low-quality housing on really cheap rural land. INSKEEP: Cheap housing sheltered cheap labor that could sell affordable goods to the world. We've gone just one block from the urban village, and suddenly we're amid these upscale shops. And the brand name on this clothing store is Youngor. In more recent years, a wealthier China has redeveloped some urban villages. Wages and living standards soared, but something else soared, too - real estate prices. It was a bubble. In front of a restaurant, we met Li Chen, who's worked almost 10 years for an insurance company. LI CHEN: (Speaking Chinese). INSKEEP: She considers Shenzhen a special place to live. And she pays for that privilege. I read an article that says that in Shenzhen, many people have to spend half their income on their mortgage for their home. You say, yes, that's right? LI: About half. INSKEEP: Half your income goes for the mortgage? Her parents help her to make ends meet. Lately, the government has tried to deflate the real estate bubble. But economist Dan Wang says residents still pay a lot. WANG: That pretty much mean they cannot have too much in hand for consumption. And that's part of the reason why consumer market has been so weak in the past four or five years. INSKEEP: The real estate that once powered Shenzhen's economy now restrains it somewhat, though the city is still exporting to the world. (SOUNDBITE OF CLOUDKICKER'S "EXPLORE, BE CURIOUS") Copyright &copy; 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. 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