Citizen Square

This guide to Citizen Square in Shenzhen follows the government building whose sweeping roof, shaped in 1998 to echo the wings of the mythical Kunpeng bird, sat half-finished for years when funding ran short before finally opening in 2004. You'll hear how a competition-winning American design tried to give a civic heart to a city that barely existed before 1980, and how the square's long axis points two kilometers north to Lianhua Mountain. Consider what it means that more than seventeen million people now call this instant metropolis home.