Shenzhen

Dongmen shopping area

We all got 10-year visas to visit mainland China.  The next day, we got on the MTR (the Hong Kong subway) and went to Shenzhen.  Shenzhen is a city of 11 million people (18 million metro area) on the border with Hong Kong.   The train ride took about an hour and then we had to go through People’s Republic of China (PRC) customs and immigration.  When we got to the hotel, the boys immediately got the wifi going so they could play games on their phones.  They were disappointed to find that indeed the internet is censored in the PRC and some of the sites they typically go to were blocked. 

Shangri-la Hotel in Shenzhen, China. 

Look at those watches!

After a little rest and a cold drink, we went to the Lo Wu Shopping Plaza.  It is a five-story building with a maze of hundreds of tiny stores on each floor.  Peter’s blunt assessment was that the mall was “filled with fake crap and obnoxious Chinese salesmen.”  We were indeed bombarded by people outside the mall following us around, trying to give us business cards and encouraging us to go to this shop or that shop, but despite being pushy, they were polite and friendly.  One woman asked whether we were from Australia.  We said that we were from Hong Kong.  She laughed, waived her hand across our faces and said “You no Hong Kong, you English.”  Wrong again.  It took us quite a while to get up to the fourth floor and find a shop that had been recommended to us.  At the shop, we were treated very politely.  We were given stools and shown catalogs with designer handbags and watches.  We shopped all day.  Stella looked at many handbags, but none of them were of high enough quality for her.  We all picked out designer watches and Stella picked out a designer wallet.  After several minutes of haggling, we made our first purchases for well less than half the asking price (and we probably still overpaid).  Next, we went to a place that sold prescription glasses.  An eye exam and two pairs of hand-made wood prescription reading glasses after ten minutes of haggling and threatening to walk away? $38 per pair.  A pair of designer sunglasses?  $22.50.  From there we went upstairs to a tailor, where Stella picked out fabric and ordered two custom-made  dresses.  After a long day, we headed back to the hotel.  Per Peter, “Before I collapsed on my bed to sleep like a Chinese marble, we went to a British pub and enjoyed some ¾ pound radioactive sea buffalo burgers.  The only thing I did not get out of our trip was my superpowers from that burger.  But I’m still waiting.”

Lawn Clock in Luohu Commercial City

Boys in Dongmen shopping area

The next morning, we took the subway to the Dongmen shopping area.  There were no English speakers in this area whatsoever, but prices were even lower than the mall by the border.  We mostly just wandered around and took in the sights and smells.  Per Spiro “It was hot, humid, polluted and cars didn’t abide by any sort of traffic rules.”  Stella bought a dress and some flip flops and the boys got a couple of button-down dress shirts.  After a few hours there, we took a long subway ride to the Dafen art district.  Per Spiro “Shenzhen was at its best when on the metro (their sometimes underground and sometimes elevated subway system) looking out as the skyscrapers go on for miles and miles.”  The Dafen art district was blocks and blocks of narrow streets full of art galleries, framing shops and art supply stores.  Per Peter “It was nothing like I expected.  I was told there would be many copies of famous paintings, but it turns out it was just the stock of Hobby Lobby.  By the way David Green (founder of Hobby Lobby) I personally congratulate you for managing to turn a 425% profit on those paintings.”  We found one piece we liked, which we bargained down to $150, but it was simply too hard to communicate with the artist about shipping and the piece was too big for us to carry home, so we didn’t make the purchase.  Maybe next trip.

Artists working in Dafen artist village

Food vender in Dongmen
shopping area