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The article discusses the domination of land and real estate developers in Hong Kong, China. The author notes that the developers impose an image of Hong Kong that is favorable to the world, but is not necessarily accurate. As an example the author notes the torch relay for 2008 Summer Olympics. He points out that the majority of torch bearers were those involved in the real estate business, not athletes as is usually associated with the event. He also points out that the route of the relay bypasses the more impoverished areas of Hong Kong, favoring well developed areas instead. The author goes on to note that apartment rent prices are the highest in the world helped in part by what he calls the (re)development regime.

This paper attempts to build on these published works by examining the role planning has played in directing development in Shenzhen, Guangdong Sheng, China. "Planning" in this paper is not restricted to spatial land use planning, but rather also includes socio-economic planning. Integration of these two types of planning is essential because socioeconomic activities must take place in physical space, and if spatial planning is not integrated with socioeconomic planning, the latter will be very difficult to implement. This paper is divided into two main parts. The first part argues that existing theoretical perspectives do not adequately explain the Shenzhen experiment. However, one thing is certain, socioeconomic and spatial planning by the central and local governments has played a major role in the transformation of Shenzhen from a rural county into a modem metropolis. The second part of the paper analyzes in detail how planning rhetoric was fashioned to accommodate the development realities of Shenzhen over time.