November 30, 2005

City of factories showcases its luxurious side

SHENZHEN -- The video zipped across a big projection screen: flashing images of cargo ships, men shaking hands, soaring office towers, gardens, trees, the symphony.

Seattle?

No. Shenzhen, one of the busiest manufacturing hubs on the planet.

Seattle trade-mission delegates have traveled 6,500 miles to sell the Puget Sound region and its products to China. But they also sat politely as their hosts made a counterpitch.

The video fired a barrage of figures. This being Communist China, there was no bad news. Last year, Shenzhen's imports and exports made it the third-busiest port in the world. Most indicators were up by double-digit percentages from last year.

The city also was selling its beauty. "Shenzhen is a city of design," the narrator intoned as the video zoomed through lush parks and along tree-lined boulevards. "It strives for not being big in scale, but vast in quality."

In 1980, Deng Xiaoping picked Shenzhen as a special economic zone, freeing the economy to adopt limited capitalism. According to lore, Shenzhen was a sleepy fishing village of 30,000 back then. "Deng said, 'If we mess up here, it's OK,' " joked Kenneth Tse, general manager of Yantian International Container Terminals, one of Shenzen's four ports.

Twenty five years later, the city is bigger than New York, with 11 million residents, including 5 million without official residency permits. It is dominated by sleek office and housing towers that surprised the Seattleites.

"I was expecting a lower level of living," said Candace Lydston, director of 737 materials management at Boeing. "I haven't seen one water buffalo."

Most of the city is landscaped like a park, with palm and banyan trees planted so thick along the broad boulevards they often obscure the buildings. The government said it spent $12.3 billion on parks and green belts in Shenzhen.

One billboard advertised lingerie. Another, Rolls-Royce cars. "Comes with burglar alarm," it said.

"Seeing is believing," said Chen Yingchun, vice-mayor of Shenzhen, clearly proud of the city's standard of living.

Chen held a formal reception for the delegates in digs normally reserved for heads of state: A giant sitting room, red carpet and golden wood panel walls, flanked with giant yellow brocade chairs with large white doilies on their arms. At one end of the room, in larger, more ornate chairs, sat vice-mayor Chen and Nancy Anderson, a vice-president at Microsoft.

"China is still a developing country," said the vice-mayor, who wore a dark blue suit and large black-rimmed glasses. "We hope that through cooperation with Seattle, we can learn from those advanced companies in the world."

An official delegation from Shenzhen's Longgang District arrived in Seattle yesterday and will meet with officials from Boeing, the local software industry and others active in international trade.

Broadband connections and worker dormitories

It was hard to think of it as a developing country after seeing apartment blocks where units sell for about $175,000 for 1,000 square feet, and rent for $1,250 a month, according to a broker at Shenzhen-Hua Real Estate. The average income in Shenzhen is about $7,000, six times the national average.

Alberto Vettoretti, a lawyer at Dezan Shira & Associates, a China-based law firm, said nine out of 10 Shenzhen homes have access to cable TV, and eight in 10 families have computers. The video claimed the government's goal of putting fiber-optic Internet connections in all buildings was "basically completed."

Here, the only visible reminder that China lags the developed countries was the heavy smog that dulled the sun and shortened the views. The smog comes from coal-fired power plants needed to keep up with rising electricity demand. Coal mining is increasing 40 percent this year in an effort to cope with blackouts that happen once or twice a week during peak months, Vettoretti said.

But on the bus driving to Guangzhou that night, delegates saw the Shenzhen that the video and vice-mayor avoided mentioning: Miles of concrete buildings, fluorescent lights blazing inside. Most of the estimated 60,000 factories in Guangdong province are along this road. The delegates saw thousands of low-wage workers on the night shift making the world's electronics, shoes, computers and toys.

"You could see whole floors. There was nothing but heads," said one delegate, who didn't want to be quoted by name criticizing China. "It was like a hive."

Next door stood dormitories furnished with metal bunks and blankets. Row upon row, block upon block.

Yanan Xu, program director for Bellevue-based City University and a Chinese native, said most of those workers will never earn enough to live in the nicer apartment buildings. They hope to give their children an education, and through that a chance at upward mobility.

Trading with places like Seattle is how Shenzhen hopes to do it.

Alwyn Scott 206-464-3329 or ascott@seattletimes.com

Posted by Al Scott at November 30, 2005 10:42 AM

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