Shenzhen: The Silicon Valley of China (documentary)

Do you have a gadget nearby made in China? Most likely it came from Shenzhen. Need a component? An effective route is to go to eBay and look for distributors in Shenzhen. Want to start an electronics business with low-cost goods? Either way, all arrows point to Shenzhen. Bloomberg's team published a nine-minute mini documentary exploring part of the "factory of the world", and you can't miss it.

The public already has a fairly solid idea of what Shenzhen is these days and what happens there. But a frequently overlooked detail is that the storm of hyperproduction and high technology surrounding the city is relatively modern. Four decades ago, Shenzhen was little more than a regional market (and not a "fishing village" as several media outlets repeat). It was officially declared a city in 1979, and a year later it became the first of China's "special economic zones". The official population of Shenzhen hovers near 12.9 million, but municipal authorities estimate the actual number approaches 20 million.

Shenzhen, the new 'Mecca' of electronics

The Bloomberg and Ashlee Vance mini documentary repeats the phrase "Shenzhen speed" several times. The city's pace is dizzying. Startups and foreign companies based there can get parts for their prototypes up to seven times faster than normal. If it's just a couple of components, you'll have them in hand in less than an hour. Everything revolves around Huaqiangbei, the nerve center of electronics manufacturing, sales, and distribution in Shenzhen. Remember Scotty Allen, that war-nut who enjoys enjoy hacking and building iPhones with recycled parts? His visits to Huaqiangbei are frequent, and honestly, the place is inexhaustible.

Of course, any in-depth tour of Shenzhen requires exploring the human factor, and Ashlee Vance visited the Grandsun Electronic factory, which produces headphones for the Australian brand Nura. The workers' stories are more or less similar: they leave rural life behind, arrive in the city, stay about two years on average, save as much money as they can, stand in long lines to eat at the cafeteria, and tolerate a work pace that would probably destroy a Westerner (in fact, the "safety nets" to prevent suicides are still there). The "Shenzhen speed" demands it, though there's one exception: the afternoon nap, wǔjiào. This documentary is another episode of the Hello World series. If you want to see more, don't hesitate to follow their channel.