Shenzhen takes its name from the water channels that once crossed the area’s farmland; in the local Hakka and Cantonese dialects, the character zhen refers to a ditch or drain cut through the fields. Today, “ditch” as a descriptor could hardly be further from the truth.
“深圳”之名源自当地昔日纵横田间的水沟；在客家话及粤语中，”圳”字即有田间水沟之意。
By the Ming dynasty, a rural market known as Shenzhen Xu had developed roughly where Shenzhen’s Dongmen shopping district stands today; it expanded further after the Kowloon–Canton railway opened a station there in 1911, linking the town directly to Hong Kong.
到明代，今日东门一带已形成名为”深圳墟”的乡间集市；一九一一年广九铁路通车并在此设站后，深圳墟与香港直接相连，进一步发展成为当地的商贸中心。
After Britain defeated the Qing in the First and Second Opium Wars, Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon peninsula were ceded outright; on 9 June 1898, the two sides signed a convention leasing the New Territories from Xin’an county to Britain for 99 years. Across the three agreements, 1,055.61 of Xin’an’s original 3,076 square kilometres passed out of the county’s jurisdiction.
英国在第一次及第二次鸦片战争中击败清政府后，香港岛与九龙半岛先后被永久割让；一八九八年六月九日，双方又签订《展拓香港界址专条》，将新安县境内的新界租借给英国，为期九十九年。经这三次割让与租借，新安县原有三千零七十六平方公里土地中，共有一千零五十五点六一平方公里脱离其管辖。
A County Cut in Half
一个被拦腰分割的县
Hong Kong’s governor, Henry Arthur Blake, oversaw the brief military occupation of the newly leased territory in 1899, a process that met armed resistance from Xin’an villagers before British control was secured.
一八九九年，时任港督卜力主持对这片新租借地的短暂军事占领，期间新安村民曾以武力抵抗，英方其后方才确立控制。
The remaining part of Xin’an county stayed predominantly rural for decades; in 1953, the county seat relocated from Nantou to Shenzhen town itself, after the railway had made it the area’s busiest commercial centre.
被割去部分土地后，剩下的新安县多年来仍以乡村为主；一九五三年，县治从南头迁至深圳镇，原因是铁路已令深圳镇成为当地最繁忙的商贸中心。
Local officials proposed renaming the county in 1978, arguing in a report to the Guangdong authorities that Shenzhen, as a long-established railway port, was already internationally known, whereas almost nobody outside the region had heard of Bao’an; Guangdong’s provincial authorities approved the change in January 1979, and the State Council confirmed it that March.
一九七八年，当地官员向广东省提交报告，提议将县名更改，理由是深圳作为由来已久的铁路口岸早已闻名于世，而”宝安”这个名字在当地以外则鲜为人知；广东省委于一九七九年一月批准了这一更名，国务院于同年三月正式批复。
From Border County to Export Powerhouse
从边境小县到出口重镇
The following year, Shenzhen became one of China’s first four special economic zones, its location beside Hong Kong making it a natural testing ground for foreign investment and export-oriented industry.
次年，深圳成为中国最早设立的四个经济特区之一，毗邻香港的地理位置，使其天然成为吸引外资、发展出口产业的试验场。
By 2025, Shenzhen’s economic output had reached ¥3.873 trillion, up 5.5 percent on the year, and the city’s exports topped mainland China’s major cities for the 33rd consecutive year; its population grew by 259,000 people over the year.
到二零二五年，深圳地区生产总值已达三万八千七百三十一点八亿元，同比增长百分之五点五，出口总额连续三十三年居中国内地大中城市首位；全年常住人口增加二十五点九万人。
By the end of 2025, Shenzhen’s urban rail network had reached 634.5 kilometres and was carrying nearly 9 million passengers a day; 81 percent of commuters now reach work within 45 minutes, the highest share among China’s first-tier cities.
到二零二五年底，深圳城市轨道交通运营里程已达六百三十四点五公里，日均客运量接近九百万人次；如今全市百分之八十一的通勤者可在四十五分钟内到达工作地点，这一比例居中国一线城市首位。
In Dafen, a former Hakka hamlet in Longgang district, Hong Kong art dealer Huang Jiang set up a painting workshop in 1989. By around 2005, China was estimated to supply 70 percent of the oil paintings sold in Europe and North America, with 80 percent of those coming from Dafen, where painters worked in production-line fashion; at its peak, the village produced around 5 million paintings a year.
在龙岗区一座原本默默无闻的客家村落大芬，香港画商黄江于一九八九年创办了一家画室。到二零零五年前后，据估计，欧美市场上出售的油画约七成产自中国，其中又有八成来自大芬，当地画师以流水线方式作画；鼎盛时期，村内年产油画约五百万幅。
