The cities of Kazan, Russia, Kaohsiung,Chinese Taipei, Shenzhen, China, Murcia, Spain, and Poznań, Poland were in contention for the Games.

[3] Shenzhen was not considered a favorite, as several other sporting competitions have been assigned to China in recent years, including the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, the 2009 Winter Universiade in Harbin, and the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou.

Also, as a city, Shenzhen was only 30 years old as of 2010 and lacked experience in hosting a major sporting competition, compared to the other candidates.

According to the head of Shenzhen's Communist Party division, Wang Rong, all this was done to prevent the embarrassment of China in front of the world, as many foreigners were to be present in the city during the Games.

Its relationship with the logo, the "Happy U" breaks the traditional mascot design idea to be realistic, and comforts the spirit of the Universiade.

A new International Olympic Centre featuring a 60,000-seat main stadium, an 18,000-seat gym, a 13.4-square-kilometre park and other facilities, also was established in Longgang District.

The main gymnasium of Universiade Center has an area of 45,000 square meters and 4 layers, allowing more than 18,000 spectators to watch matches.