If the city of Hong Kong (China) has the most skyscrapers in the world, its neighbor Shenzhen is the one with the most that exceed 200 meters in height. Indeed, this city has no less than 120.
Shenzhen, a city of skyscrapers
According to the media The SkyDeck, the city with the most skyscrapers in the world is Hong Kong (China). The former British colony, which is undergoing intense pressure on real estate, has just 480 tall buildings. Let us recall in passing that the term “skyscraper” qualifies very tall buildings, without there really being a minimum height. Thus, if we consider the skyscraper over 200 meters high, the city of Shenzhen, also located in China, is the one with the most in the world (120). This city of more than 10 million inhabitants is also the second city hosting the most skyscrapers in the world, that is to say 292.
The tallest skyscraper in Shenzhen is none other than the Ping An International Finance Center, measuring 599m (structural height). Erected in 2017, this tower is the fifth tallest in the world. The building is named following the Ping An conglomerate, a financial company active in banking and insurance. In addition, the Top 3 tallest buildings in the city are completed by the KK100 tower (441 m) and the China Resources Headquarters (392 m), which rank respectively 25th and 41st in the world ranking.
Credits: Zanxiao Zou / iStock
It all starts with the special economic zone
Previously, Shenzhen was a fishing village. But, in 1980, the locality became a special economic zone. In other words, it is a question of a more open economy than in the rest of communist China, in an attempt to compete with its neighbor Hong Kong, which will remain British until 1997. A veritable showcase of Chinese development, Shenzhen is also nicknamed the “Chinese Silicon Valley”. It must be said that the city is home to the head offices of very large technological groups such as Huawei. Shenzhen is also the factory of the world because it is where a good part of the electronic products sold on the planet are produced.
After the creation of the special economic zone, urban planners therefore took the decision to make Shenzhen a city of skyscrapers. It was obviously a question of giving an image of size to the city, but not only. Indeed, Shenzhen is on a narrow strip of land, surrounded by sea, mountains and a border with Hong Kong. A little geographical location so obvious.
However, Shenzhen’s verticality more generally reflects China’s obsession with skyscrapers. This is the result of a desire to improve the image of the country with modern buildings. It is also a matter of promoting galloping urbanization as the attractiveness of cities increases. It is no coincidence that today we find six Chinese cities in the Top 10 cities with the most skyscrapers in the world.