This is my third year living in China (I live/work in Suzhou, Jiangsu province). It has really been a great experience exploring China. So far, I have been to 54 Chinese cities, all solo. On January 2020, I was travelling to the Guangdong province of China and visited three beautiful cities: Shenzhen (深圳市), Dongguan and Foshan. In fact, this was the Chinese New Year time and I wanted to visit more cities (including Zhuhai and Macau). However, due to the unfortunate coronavirus outbreak, I couldn’t complete my trip and had to returned to Suzhou.
Anyways, in this blog-post, I am going to share my travel memories of Shenzhen city. A quick list of Shenzhen’s top travel attractions is included as well. In the upcoming blog-posts, I’ll talk more about Dongguan and Foshan. You may also want to check out my other blog-posts about travelling to China, such as Wuyuan, Nanchang, etc.
Shenzhen Photo Album
As always, in this article, I am attaching some of the photos that I clicked during my Shenzhen trip. For more travel pics, please check out the Shenzhen Photo Album (you may also want to check out the Amazon homepage):
- Paperback: Shenzhen Photo Album,
- Kindle (eBook version- Shenzhen Photo Album).
Shenzhen city brief
Shenzhen, often locally referred to as Shen (深) for short, is one of the four first-tier cities in China. It is a city under the jurisdiction of the Guangdong Province. Shenzhen is located in the south of Guangdong, on the east bank of the Pearl River Estuary, across the water from Hong Kong. It faces the Daya Bay and Dapeng Bay in the east, the Pearl River Estuary and Lingdingyang in the west, the Shenzhen River connected to Hong Kong in the south, and Dongguan and Huizhou in the north. The city has 11 districts (9 administrative districts, 2 functional districts), and 61 town-level administrative units (56 sub-districts, 4 towns). The municipal government is located in Futian District.
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Shenzhen is a planned sub-provincial level mega city. The city is famous for cultivating innovation, science and technology. It is also China’s one of the comprehensive transportation hubs, and one of the major national financial centers.
In 1980, Shenzhen became the first Special Economic Zone established by China.
As of 2020, Shenzhen has a resident population of about 13 million.
Best time to visit Shenzhen?
The best time to travel to Shenzhen is the winters, basically from November to February. During winters, the midday temperature is expected to be about 15’C. Nevertheless, you still need to bring some winter clothes for the night time. Since I came from Suzhou, and it had been cold in Suzhou, I did bring lots of winter clothes to Shenzhen. However, I didn’t really use them in Shenzhen.
- Level 1: Chinese Reading Books (Journey to the West Series, 600 characters)
- Level 2: Chinese Reading Books (Chinese History Series, 900 characters)
How do you get to Shenzhen?
Shenzhen is a major transportation hub. There are all types of transportations available to/from the city. Shenzhen has a world class international airport. The Shenzhen Railway Station (深圳站) is directly connected by the high-speed trains to Beijing, Shanghai, Macau, Hong Kong, etc. You can also come to Shenzhen by intercity buses.
Shenzhen airport to city center
I had taken a flight from Wuxi Sunan Shuofang International Airport (苏南硕放国际机场) to Shenzen Baoan International airport (深圳宝安国际机场). We landed after midnight. The airport is about 32Km from the city center. The city subway connects the airport to the city center. However, since the subway didn’t operate in the late night, I took the city bus for RMB 20. The airport buses operate 24 hours. Once the bus departed from the airport, it took about 1.5hours before I got down close to my hotel.
Shenzhen Hotel accommodations
It’s very convenient to find hotels in Shenzhen. You can use online reservations as well. I generally stay with Hanting Express (汉庭酒店), Jinjiang Inn (锦江之星) or Home Inn (如家酒店). In Shenzhen, I chose to stay with Hanting Express. Here is the address:
Here is the address:
- In English: Hanting Express Shenzhen Huaqiang Center Park, Building3-4, Sheji Zhidu, Tianmian Xincun, Zhenhua Xi Road, Futian District, Shenzhen, Guangdong, Futian, Shenzhen, 518028, China
- In Chinese: 汉庭酒店深圳华强中心公园店 深圳, 福田区, 福田区振华西路田面新村设计之都3-4幢 .
- Phone: +86 755 3391 2788
You can also search this hotel on Baidu Map: 汉庭酒店(华强中心公园店).
It was the Chinese New Year season, so the prices were slightly expensive (about RMB 200/night).
Moreover, keep in mind that a good number of hotels in China can’t accommodate foreigners.
Although the aforementioned Hanting Express does allow foreigners, the receptionist hardly spoke any English. Thankfully, I do speak basic Chinese.
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- Level 4: Chinese Reading Books (Chinese Geography Series, over 1000 characters)
Shenzhen transportation
Shenzhen is served by the awesome subway and buses. It’s recommended to buy a Shenzhen transportation card (深圳通卡) for about RMB 60. It can be used in both subways and buses. Moreover, it’s very easy to find a taxi in Shenzhen. You should DiDi App (滴滴) for finding taxis, it also has an English version App. DiDi is highly recommended.
Shenzhen cuisine
Guangdong is famous for its mouthwatering delicacies food, locally known as Yuecai or Yue cuisine (粤菜, Yuècài). In fact, the Cantonese cuisine is one of the four traditional and eight major Chinese cuisines. The most famous dish that I loved in Shenzhen is called Steamed Vermicelli Roll (Chang Fen, 肠粉). It’s basically a snack (小吃). You can grab one bowl for RMB 5 onwards, the more meat and flavors you add, the more expensive. However, for about RMB 15 you can get a very comprehensive taste of Chang Fen dish. The Dong Men Pedestrian Street (东门步行街) is a must visit for shopping and eating authentic Chinese food.
Top things to do in Shenzhen
Here is a quick list of the top things to do in Shenzhen.
These places are absolutely worth visiting in Shenzhen. Apart from the scenery, they also offer great photo opportunities:
- Shenzhen Airport (深圳宝安国际机场)
- Xin’an (Nantou) Ancient City (南头古城垣/新安南头古城)
- Chiwan Left Fort (赤湾左炮台)
- Tomb of the Young Song Emperor (宋少帝陵)
- Chiwan Tin Hau Temple (赤湾天后宫)
- He Xiangning Art Museum (何香凝美术馆)
- Dong Men Pedestrian Street (东门步行街)
- Dafen Oil Painting Village (大芬油画村)
- Shenzhen Museum (深圳博物馆)
- Guan Shan Yue Art Gallery (关山月美术馆)
- Lianhuashan Park (莲花山公园)
- Shenzhen Library (深圳图书馆)
- Ping An International Finance Centre (平安国际金融中心)
- Hua Qiang Bei (华强北)
- Shenzhen Railway Station (深圳站)
- Chung Ying Street Museum (中英街历史博物馆/中英街)
- OCT Art and Design Gallery (华美术馆)
- Fairy Lake Botanical Gardens (仙湖植物公园)
- Chung Ying Street (中英街)
If you like paintings, the Dafen Oil Painting Village is a must visit. There are so many shops selling paintings. There is also a painting museum in the village. If you are into history, Chiwan Left Fort and Nantou Ancient City are worth exploring. In fact, the Nantou Ancient City also has a museum depicting China’s Opium Wars. For book lovers, Shenzhen Library is a great place to check out the books.
Shenzhen nightlife
Shenzhen has a good nightlife scene. You should wander around Hua Qiang Bei or Dong Men Pedestrian Street. They have got plenty to eat and drink. A good number of bars in the city are located in the Futian area. You can just get to Futian and search 酒吧 (Jiǔbā) in Baidu Map. Here are some of the bar worth checking out:
- 3D Bar, Block B, Bar Street, Citic Plaza, 1093 Shennan Road (Futian): Baidu: 中信大厦, 深圳市福田区深南中路1093号.
- Base Bar, 1019 Shangbu S Rd, Futian District (福田区上步南路1019号).
- Le Nest (深圳市福田区民田路购物公园北园C区144号). This is among the biggest clubs in Shenzhen.
- McCawley’s Irish Bar & Restaurant, (Shekou, Futian)
In summary, I loved visiting Shenzhen, my 52nd city in China. The city offers a good mix of travel attractions, Chinese culture stuffs, food, etc. There are simply too many dishes worth trying. I quite miss Shenzhen food and would love to travel to Shenzhen again.
Have you been to Shenzhen? How was your experience?
That’s all in this post about traveling and top thing to do in Shenzhen. If you have any question about traveling, living or working in China, do let me know in the comments! Feel free to post in our forum so that others could also contribute and learn. For regular updates like us on Facebook, or follow on Twitter!
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Happy exploring China!
Cheers!
Last updated: Saturday, June 6, 2020