Shenzhen Convention & Exhibition Center

This guide to the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center follows the ground it stands on back to 1980, when it was rice paddies and fish ponds worked by a county of roughly three hundred thousand farmers and fishermen, before China declared it a Special Economic Zone. It traces the German firm von Gerkan, Marg and Partners winning an international competition in 2001 to design what locals call the Crystal Palace, and the Hi-Tech Fair that filled its nine exhibition halls with the country's technology ambitions. Look for the rippling roof said to stretch five hundred and forty meters end to end.