SHENZHEN/GUANGZHOU -- When a young entrepreneur was looking for a place to launch his idea for mass-producing a superstrong material of the future, he did not go to Silicon Valley but rather to a Chinese metropolis that has become a magnet for high-tech startups.
Deng Fei, an overseas-educated Chinese haigui (literally "sea turtle") returning to his country to pursue his ambitions, is one of the businesspeople leading Shenzhen's transition from "factory of the world" to a global center of technological innovation. The city accounted for more than half of China's international patent applications last year, far outpacing Beijing, a Nikkei analysis finds.
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