Nov 12, 2014
Postcards: Hello from Shenzhen (CN)
Work took me away to Shenzhen for a few days recently, and for my maiden trip to China, I was pretty much ensconced inside a fancy hotel throughout the period. I wish I had seen more of the city but each day, I was up and on the go pretty much between 7am and 11pm with little down time in between. Nonetheless, I made some effort to escape the glittering chandeliers for the very modern city filled with skyscrapers.
A couple of hours walk barely took me anywhere beyond the couple of blocks around the hotel. The distance that seemed doable from the map I’ve secured from the hotel was dauntingly further, and it did not help that I got lost at some point in an urban park and none of the exits (except the one I came in through) were accessible. A lot of walking hopelessly in circle until I found the way out…
It is very hard to imagine Shenzhen as a fishing village mere three decades ago. The pace of construction had been tremendous, and they are still building. There are some 15 million inhabitants today in Shenzhen, and more are flocking to the city although many of them opt to be non-local migrant worker, that is to say, they stay in staff hostels during the week and return to their hometowns at the weekends and during the holidays.
I wish I had had more time to explore the city. I heard there’s a large statue of Deng Xiaoping in a mountain park that bears one of my Chinese name characters, and in case you’re wondering about a version of Eiffel Tower existing in Shenzhen, yes, there is one, at “Window of the World” and I even spotted the top tip from afar!
Good thing u still managed to get out and about and also found your way back from the garden hehehe ;)
it took a while, i must admit! oh well, HK posts to come next ;)