In the book (Goodreads link), written by architect and urban planner - lots of well-known, or thought so, phenomena get incredibly detailed descriptions from the story of the city.

It’s the first ”Special Economic Zone” that eventually opened China to the world.

What’s been described there, that interested me most:

• Was it ”instant”? Not really, 10 years in - wasn’t obvious the plan was working (think 1989, what a year)
• Was it a wise incredibly long-term plan? In a way, yes - however no scenario expected the kind of success it would be, much of the growth aspects worked out by unpredicted factors and lots of people in the government up to the very top were not at all enthusiastic about the project even decades in progress.
• Was it scalable? Markets/Globalisation were, but otherwise the book highlights so many internal factors that helped that specific city, fact that it was the first-blessed helped, geographical location enormously helped, migration flows, diaspora investments, and many-many others.

Many anecdotes helped shape the story, historical deepdives with many centuries back also add the relevance (think how ancient trade routes shaped the countries for centuries and almost never dissolve completely).

Not at all rosy: with the issues of planning, some protests over property, and other issues - many negative sides of quick growth covered - but only within a limits of author working on Chinese projects, which says a bit.

But it’s very interesting nonetheless - one among many metropolises built from villages in China it does make one think how we don’t really see cities getting build, industries created in once lifetime and what’s more important - who does it, how, what sort of obstacles they’re facing, which shortcomings are there at the end and what’s the price paid.

Quite a read.