Shenzhen Guangming‘s “Mushrooms & Moss”: The Real Soul of a Future City | 26 Nov 2025

26 November 2025, Shenzhen‘s Guangming District. Morning commute from Atour Hotel to the Shenzhen Bay Laboratory. Beneath the gleaming slogans of a “world‑class science city,” I saw mushrooms and moss. At every intersection beneath the new towers, vendors pushed their carts selling breakfast, fruit, and vegetables. ——— Guangming District is positioned as a “world‑class science city” and Shenzhen’s northern center. In 2025, Guangming formally introduced the “One District, Three Zones” strategic positioning——building a world‑class science city, accelerating its development as a pioneer pilot zone for the Greater Bay Area‘s comprehensive national science center, a core zone for a globally influential industrial technology innovation center, and a core zone for a high‑level talent hub in the GBA. Guangming Science City has been listed among the national top 100 science and technology cities for three consecutive years, rising from 24th place to 7th. It now hosts 57 academicians and over 2,800 high‑level talents. It brings in major research institutions like the Shenzhen Bay Laboratory and a host of high‑tech enterprises. In November 2025, the first phase of the Shenzhen Bay Laboratory‘s permanent campus broke ground, designed as a “scientific living community” where researchers can relax and unwind beyond work. This sense of “a future within reach” is itself part of what makes a place livable. ——… But the true secret of every successful “future city” is this: A truly great new district must not only attract top minds to work—it must also nurture and embrace diverse souls to live. Its charm does not lie in erasing the traces of old life, but in allowing the old and new to coexist in productive tension. The shiny buildings, slogans, billboards—these are the “flesh of planning.” Blueprints, visions, top‑down tracks. The cart‑pushing vendors, the square‑dancing crowds, the office worker eating breakfast on the lawn, the grandparent with a child, the barber chatting on the corner——these are the “soul of life.” Official narratives—high‑tech, future cities, GDP—are necessary, efficient, simplified language. But a map, no matter how precise, cannot replace the rich smells and textures of the actual terrain. The “soul of life” is bottom‑up, unruly, unplannable—authentic needs and vital rhythms. ——… They are like tenacious “mushrooms and moss” sprouting from the concrete jungle. They emerge naturally in the “cracks” of planning——crossroads, gaps between buildings, under overpasses. In the most humble ways, they fill the human‑scale gaps and immediate needs that grand planning overlooks. Without them, any new district is merely a splendid shell. These vendors also embody the delicate balance between “order” and “vitality” in urban governance. In 2025, the Guangming Street Farmers‘ Market night market was renovated, relocating 23 former street vendors to standardized stalls. Meanwhile, Guangming District has also been actively establishing new vendor zones, guiding vendors to operate in designated areas. This is the ongoing dialogue between “planning” and “life.” ——… If we only marvel at how new the buildings are, how beautiful the parks, how advanced the technology, we risk sounding like a real estate brochure. What matters more is discovering the “soul of life” beneath the official blueprint. Jane Jacobs, in The Death and Life of Great American Cities, argued that the mechanical zoning of orthodox planning theory severed the organic connections between a city‘s functions, leading to a loss of diversity and richness in urban life. A truly great city requires a “human scale”—diverse street life, residents of different professions and classes, small shops rather than big box stores, small streets rather than wide avenues. The Shenzhen Bay Laboratory’s “scientific living community” is a response to this philosophy—allowing researchers to “relax and unwind beyond work and study”. A good new district, from the very start of planning, thinks about how to make people truly stay, not just show up to work. #深圳 #Shenzhen #治愈 #Healing #分享给有艺术细胞的你 #ForTheArtisticSoul #拍出电影感 #Cinematic #应该从哪里开始了解一个城市 #WhereToBeginUnderstandingACity #慢下来看世界 #SlowDownSeeTheWorld #发现生活发现美 #DiscoverLifeDiscoverBeauty #科技与人文 #TechnologyAndHumanities #探索与发现 #ExplorationAndDiscovery #生命科学 #LifeSciences #人生哲理 #LifePhilosophy #城市速写 #UrbanSketching #城市漫游 #cityroaming 2025年11月26日，深圳光明区。早晨上班，从亚朵酒店去深圳湾实验室。在这片“世界一流科学城”的光鲜口号下，我看到了"蘑菇"和"苔藓"----新盖的大楼下，各个路口都有商贩推着小推车卖早点、水果蔬菜。 ——— 光明区，定位是“世界一流科学城”和深圳北部中心。2025年，光明区正式提出“一城三区”新目标定位——建设世界一流科学城，加快打造大湾区综合性国家科学中心先行启动区、更具全球影响力的产业科技创新中心和粤港澳大湾区高水平人才高地的核心承载区。光明科学城连续3年入选全国科技城百强榜，排名从第24名跃升至第7名，全区院士达57人，高层次人才超2800人。 但所有“未来之城”成功的真正密码：一个真正伟大的新区，不仅要能吸引顶尖的头脑（科学家、工程师）来工作，更要能容纳和滋养多样的灵魂（菜贩、舞者、祖孙、漂泊者）来生活。它的魅力，不在于消灭了旧生活的痕迹，而在于让新旧生活以一种充满张力的方式共生。 那些崭新的楼宇、口号、广告牌，是“规划的肉身”——它是蓝图，是愿景，是自上而下设定的轨道。而推板车的菜贩、跳广场舞的人群、在草坪上吃早餐的上班族、带娃的老人、闲聊的托尼老师……这些是“生活的灵魂”。它们像是钢筋水泥世界里冒出来的顽强的“蘑菇与苔藓”。