The city of Shenzhen. Shenzhen is a major city in the south of Southern China's Guangdong Province, situated immediately north of Hong Kong.[Photo/dfic.cn]

The first time a Shenzhen native meets you, he will always ask, “Where is your hometown?”

That’s what I was first asked by Wang Jingsheng, member of the Standing Committee of CPC Shenzhen Municipal Committee, head of the propaganda department of Shenzhen, and the first person to receive me in Shenzhen.

People living in Shenzhen come from “all corners of the country.” In 1979 when it was built as a city, it had no more than 335,000 people，whereas by the end of 2014, the permanent population of Shenzhen, according to official statistics, had exceeded 10 million.

“Welcome! You come, and you become a member of Shenzhen,” said Mr. Wang with enthusiasm. The heartfelt words made me feel the charisma of this young and modern international metropolis. It also reminded me of the big public welfare billboards standing in the streets of Shenzhen. They read, “You come, and you become a member of Shenzhen.”

Wu Kaisong, a Chaoyang native who was transferred from the army to Shenzhen in 1983, called himself “a Shenzhen veteran.” Being the first chairman of Shenzhen Chaoshan Chamber of Commerce, he “is a Shenzhen native deep down” because of the tolerance of Shenzhen.

According to Mr. Wu, the openness and tolerance of Shenzhen make people living in Shenzhen respect and understand one another. “Such respect and understanding are demonstrated by tolerance—tolerance to others’ failures and choices.”

Shenzhen landscape.

Ma Huateng, the founder of Tencent Holdings, China's largest Internet company by market value, once thought of selling his two little “penguins” because he could not “afford” keeping them. Shenzhen people did not mock this innovator “with a light purse,” but helped him build a huge “penguin empire”.

Zhou Qunfei, the richest woman in China, started her career by moonlighting in Shenzhen. After getting what she needed, she returned to her hometown in Hu’nan and challenged her former employer in Shenzhen. Shenzhen people are not angry with her, but think “it is the innovative gene of Shenzhen that brings Zhou Qunfei to where she is today.”

A media veteran believes that Shenzhen people are tolerant because they are confident. “Mocking the unsuccessful or complaining about those who challenge their teachers only shows one’s weakness. Tolerance and forgiveness are the sources of power.”

Shenzhen people are also very disciplined. In Shenzhen, the incidence of people crowding to cross the road, jumping the queue, making noises or littering is much lower than that in other cities, and many more people in Shenzhen work as volunteers, give up their seats to those who need them moreon the bus, donate blood or their organs voluntarily.

A young guy who gave up his seat to a senior on bus 123 told me that he had been in Shenzhen for only one month, but “now I am here, I have to obey the local rules.”

“You come, and you become a member of Shenzhen.” Being tolerant, forgiving, confident and disciplined are the special traits of Shenzhen people, and the foundation of social harmony as well.

Translated by Yang Mifen