Very interesting. Both the Premier and President (when he was Vice-President) have visited Shannon in recent years. It barely makes the news relative to when the US President visits.

I believe they are also very interested in the agri-food industry in Ireland (Ireland is the second largest exported of baby formula to China).

"Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrives in Shannon for two day visit to the West of Ireland" http://www.shannonairport.ie/gns/about-us/latest-news/latest...

"Visit of Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping to Shannon" http://www.irishexporters.ie/visit-of-chinese-vice-president...

"Ireland second largest exporter of infant formula to China" http://www.farmersjournal.ie/ireland-second-largest-exporter...

The first time I ever travelled to the US it was through Shannon Airport, and at the time all of the flights to the US from Dublin Airport stopped off at Shannon first.

I had no idea about the history of Shannon Airport, and I thought it was so strange that it really punched above its weight in terms of international links, traffic, and size, relative to its remote location (the closest large city is Cork).

Glad I've finally discovered the reason!

Limerick, Ireland's 3rd largest city is much closer than Cork. It is about 20 minutes from the airport.

Yes. First time I flew from London to New York -- when planes still had propellers -- we stopped twice, in Shannon and then Gander.

Interesting, what even the Chinese Communist Party recognized from early on: those areas with "decentralised" management are more likely to succeed than others that must constantly respond to the capricious top-down dictates of remote legislatures and bureaucrats.

It depends on how you define success. The economic efficiency of how this place was developed cannot be denied. But is there a civic center in Shannon, Ireland? A downtown with people doing things?

Civilization does require some centralization in order to make life for people... livable.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/2lf1d0/life_in_sha...

I believe the Airport still struggles to make money. A large part of the airport traffic now consists of American Military personnel and aircraft (and possibly weapons)

May be struggling to make money but less than 3% military traffic. According to the links below approx. 21k flights in 2014 and 550 of those carried US troops and/or weapons.

See: https://www.iaa.ie/docs/default-source/publications/annual-r... http://clareherald.com/2015/09/272-flights-allowed-carry-mun...

I stopped in Shannon a couple of times, once en route to Iraq and the other on another tour en route back.

It is actually quite tragic if this dull logistics hub became the model for cities in which tens of millions of people must live out their day.

The foundation may have come from Shannon, but I think that the people cities like Shenzhen know how to "fill in the spaces" and create street life far better than Shannon has, having scooted around a bit in Google Maps.

It wasn't immediate clear to me what "Shan-Zhen" was when I first saw the title and after first read of the article. But it seems to be a combo word of Shan-(non)+ (Shen)zhen. Just FYI for whoever else was also wondering.

I assumed it referred to the Shannon free zone

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon_Free_Zone

Possibly also a word play on shan-zhai: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanzhai

Not to mention Shannon, the name of the town!

I once flew from Boston to Shannon in 5 hours, with a strong tailwind. I didn't even have time to get any shuteye on the redeye.