page_title: Shenzhen
section_title: Qing-era to 1940s
hierarchical_section_title: Shenzhen / History / Qing-era to 1940s
caption_attribution_description: English: Opening of Chinese Section of the Canton-Kowloon Railway in October 1911. The first train arrived Shum Chun (now Shenzhen) Railway Station. 中文（繁體）‎: 1911年10月，廣九鐵路華段通車，蒸汽火車（二號機車）抵達深圳。 中文（简体）‎: 1911年10月，广九铁路华段通车，蒸汽火车（二号机车）抵达深圳。
context_page_description: Shenzhen is a major sub-provincial city on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern Guangdong province, People's Republic of China. It forms part of the Pearl River Delta megalopolis, bordering Hong Kong to the south, Huizhou to the northeast and Dongguan to the northwest, and shares maritime boundaries with Guangzhou, Zhongshan and Zhuhai to the west and southwest across the estuary.
  Shenzhen's cityscape results from its vibrant economy—made possible by rapid foreign investment following the institution of the policy of "reform and opening-up" in 1979. The city is a leading global technology hub, dubbed by media China's Silicon Valley. It was one of the fastest-growing cities in the world in the 1990s and the 2000s, and has been ranked second on the list "top 10 cities to visit in 2019" by Lonely Planet.
  Shenzhen, which roughly follows the administrative boundaries of Bao'an County, officially became a city in 1979, taking its name from the former county town, whose train station was the last stop on the Mainland Chinese section of the railway between Canton and Kowloon. In 1980, Shenzhen was established as China's first special economic zone.
context_section_description: To prevent a rebellion from Ming loyalists under Zheng Chenggong, better known as Koxinga, on the Chinese coast, the recently established Qing administration re-organized coastal provinces. As a result, Xin'an County lost two-thirds of its territory to the neighboring Dongguan County and was later incorporated into Dongguan in 1669, though Xin'an was restored about 15 years later, in 1684. As of 1688, there were 28 towns in Xin'an County, of which one of the towns is named Shenzhen. When the Qing lost to the United Kingdom in both Opium Wars in 1842 and 1860, the Kowloon Peninsula and Hong Kong Island were ceded from Xin'an to the British in the Treaty of Nanking and the Convention of Peking. On 21 April 1898, the Qing government signed a "Special Article for the Exhibition of Hong Kong's Borders" with the United Kingdom, and leased the New Territories from Xin'an to the United Kingdom for 99 years. Shenzhen was occupied by the British under Henry Arthur Blake, the then-governor of Hong Kong for half-a-year in 1899. From the 3,076 square kilometres (1,188 sq mi) of territory that Xin'an held before the treaties, 1,055.61 square kilometres (407.57 sq mi) of the county's land was ceded to the British.
  In response to the Wuchang Uprising in 1911, Xin'an residents rebelled against the local Qing administration and successfully overthrew them. In the same year the Chinese section of the Kowloon–Canton Railway (KCR) was opened to the public, and the last stop of the Chinese side, named Shenzhen Railway Station at the town of Shenzhen, which had opened recently, helped the town's economy and opened Shenzhen up to the world. In 1913, the Republic of China administration renamed Xin'an County back to Bao'an County to prevent confusion from another county of the same name in Henan Province. During the Canton–Hong Kong strike, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions set up a reception station for strike workers in Hong Kong in Shenzhen. Strike workers were also given pickets and armored vehicles by the strike committee to create a blockade around Hong Kong. In 1931, Chen Jitang and his family established several casinos in Shenzhen, the largest of which being Shumchun Casino. While only in operation until 1936, they significantly increased KCR's passenger traffic to and from Shenzhen.
  During World War II, the Japanese occupied Shenzhen and Nantou, forcing the Bao'an County government to relocate to the neighboring Dongguan County. In 1941, the Japanese army tried to cross into Hong Kong through the Lo Wu Bridge in Shenzhen, though this was detonated by the British, preventing the Japanese from entering Hong Kong. When Japan surrendered on May 1945, the Bao'an County government moved back to Nantou.
caption: The opening of Shenzhen railway station, October 1911
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