The Rise of Shenzhen: China’s Silicon Valley forged by innovative, young spirit

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From a fishing village to southern China's technology hub, Shenzhen's transformation over the past four decades has dazzled the world. With tech leaders like Huawei and DJI, Shenzhen has been dubbed the country's Silicon Valley. But what makes Shenzhen so special? CGTN's Ge Yunfei went to the city to find out.

Bigger than ever. This is the latest agricultural drone released in Shenzhen, China's Silicon Valley on December 4th. With an all-weather data imaging radar that can monitor the farmland environments, it can spray pesticide over a 10 hectare area in one hour, a 67% increase over its drone predecessors.

LI XINGNONG ENGINEER, DJI "With digital beamforming technology, it can realize 3D point cloud imaging, which can effectively identify complex farmland scenes and achieve autonomous obstacle flight. The radar supports terrain slope detection, and the mountain slopes can also fly in a simulated manner."

Behind all of these innovations is the dedication of hundreds of engineers. Li Xingnong is one of those at DJI, the world's largest drone maker.

LI XINGNONG ENGINEER, DJI "I spent half a year travelling across China to collect the data of different crops. It's hard, but you're kind of participating in a great cause of modernizing and reforming the traditional agriculture production mode. It makes me proud."

Innovations from Shenzhen are gradually changing China. And Li says that's why he chose to come to the city two years ago.

LI XINGNONG ENGINEER, DJI "I love Shenzhen because this is an innovative place that has many opportunities. Even when my friends and I go out for fun, we still can't help talking about work, inventions, technologies, etc. It's weird but this is Shenzhen."

Forty years ago, the garage culture in California's Silicon Valley led to the birth of Apple and Microsoft. And now the passion of young Chinese engineers also makes companies like Huawei and DJI world technology leaders in Shenzhen.

ROGER LUO DJI PRESIDENT "DJI's success came about because we gathered a group of like-minded young talents who did not pursue capital and short-term interests. Instead, they kept advancing the techniques and wanted to fill in the technical gaps."

GE YUNFEI SHENZHEN "It's the innovative spirit of the thousands of engineers at DJI which made the company what it is today. It's that same spirit of the millions in Shenzhen that keeps the city moving. Ge Yunfei, CGTN, Shenzhen."