Gazing out at the sea of skyscrapers that is Shenzhen, you would be forgiven for being skeptical of the fact that this sprawling urban landscape was in the recent past a humble fishing village. After Shenzhen was designated the country's first special economic zone in 1980, development progressed at an astonishing rate, transforming a remote coastal area to one of the largest and most significant hardware manufacturing hubs in the world. 

One can consider this bustling metropolis – with its unmistakably ambitious energy, glistening towers, high-end shopping malls, and tree-lined walkways – the embodiment of China's lightning-fast growth and its energetic race into the future.