When China established the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone 40 years ago, overseas critics had cast doubt on its future.

Forty years later, the once small coastal village has developed into a metropolis housing 13 million with its GDP hitting 2.69 trillion yuan (about $388.89 billion).

Today, Shenzhen houses eight Fortune 500 companies, including Huawei, Tencent and China Merchants Bank, ranking the third on the Chinese mainland in terms of the number of such enterprises. Meanwhile, the city is regarded as an "engine" for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area's development into a vibrant world-class city cluster.