I’ve been working for a boss and partner in Shenzhen for over 10 years now. I’d visited twice, but just renewed my visa and got one for Nathan, so he could join me on a longer stay to work from my office and tour a few more cities.
We flew 14 hours to Hong Kong and took a van across the bridge to mainland China. Things have really changed a lot in this ultra-modern city, with my company’s new HQ in one of the most upscale districts, Nanshan. Our work schedule is a little unusual, my team arriving at the office at 2pm and staying til midnight. That made jet lag adjustments even more painful, but it did afford us the chance to explore the city a bit every day.
Besides the glittering city center of Nanshan, we found plenty of serene parks, and livelier ones filled with runners, cyclists, mahjong, badminton, and tai chi. We walked along the Dasha River which feeds into Shenzhen Bay with views toward Hong Kong.
One day, we also walked through the Nan Tou ancient town, with settlements dating back almost 3000 years. Another, we took the metro to the artsy OCT Loft neighborhood, full of factories and their dormitories converted into galleries, cafes and handmade-in-China shops.
On the weekend, we took a strenuous mountain hike to see it all from high above.
On the other weekend day, we took a high speed train to nearby Guangzhou. It has a much more historical feel than Shenzhen, with some colonial areas and ancient buddhist temples, juxtaposed against the sky scrapers of modern China. We strolled along the Pearl River and some of its island gardens, as locals passed by in paddle boats, photographed the spring blossoms, and, as always, played badminton. I struggled to get by with my limited Mandarin, as the primary language here is Cantonese. It’s also known as the home of Cantonese food, so of course we had to lunch on dim sum.
Most of my dinners were in the office, takeaway delivered to the building by scooters, then to our office by the building’s fleet of delivery robots. We did go out to some feasts too - Szechuan hot pot with clients one day and another night, seafood fresh from the tanks with a partner. I also got to reunite with a couple former coworkers for more Cantonese food. Shenzhen draws people from all over the country and so has the best of every region. You can’t get tired of eating ‘Chinese food’ every day, as there is plenty of diversity.
It was a very productive visit and I am a little sad to leave, but excited to see some more regions of China! Our next stop is a city every Chinese person recommends to me - Chengdu.