This past weekend I went to Shenzhen, China, the closest neighboring city to Hong Kong. While the distance between the two cities is so minimal that their network of subways connect, the geography is significant. Since Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region and Shenzhen is part of Mainland China it is similar to crossing the border between the US and Canada. While most Europeans can get a special visa to cross this border at the border station itself, US citizens are required to get theres in advance in a more formal application.
To avoid the complicated process of getting my Chinese Visa from the Hong Kong immigration department, I went through a travel agency to get mine. While it is slightly more expensive to do it this way, I think the convenience, reliability, and efficiency make it worth while. The company was called Forver Bright Limited, and for $HK 1900 I got a 10-year Visa to enter China as many times as I want. This way I can also use this Visa for my trip to Shanghai in December.
As for the actual trip itself, it only took about an hour and a half to get to the border from HKU station and then another hour for crossing the border. The first thing we did was check into the hotel (Which was a great find, inexpensive, and had a beautiful view of the city) and then we took out RMB (Chinese currency) from the ATM. The last thing we did before starting our adventure was buying a subway one day pass which only costed $USD 4.
We took the subway downtown and walked around the financial district. There were not too many people around because it was a Saturday night. The buildings here have sleek designs and appear to be relatively new compared to the sky scrapers in Hong Kong. The city is much bigger than I thought and is home to more than 10 million Chinese citizens. Moreover, the city is also quieter than I anticipated due to the high frequency of electric cars and bikes. Almost everyone rides bikes and since the noise pollution is so low it is actually quite eerie but its also nice for a change. At night there are also really cool light displays from some of the bigger sky scrapers in the city.
After exploring the downtown area a little we ventured to the nightlife area called, “COCO park.” The area is super interesting because it is all contained in one really tall building for the most part with different bars and clubs on every level. Lots of the bars also have an outdoor section with a nice view of the city. It was cool interacting with some of the locals and getting to know them. After having a few drinks we went back to the hotel so that we could get an early start the next day.
The next day we went to the clothing market, Luohu. Here we shopped for a few hours and looked for a watch for one of my friends. The market is fun because you can bargain and haggle with all of the shopkeepers. We eventually found a watch and got some touristy shirts all for very reasonable prices. Also nearby was the electric market which is paradise for anybody fascinated with technology. In this area they have every kind of computer, phone, speaker, headphone, monitors, etc. We found it was very easy to wander around the area for a few hours and not even notice how much time had elapsed. We all ended up purchasing wireless bluetooth headphones here for $USD 5 each because we just couldn’t turn that deal down.
From here we took the subway to an area called, “Window of the World.” Window of the World is basically a place where they have miniature versions of all the main touristic attractions all around the world, like the Eiffel Tower. This was admittedly a little bit cheesy but one of the main things to do in Shenzhen so we could not pass on it. After spending some time in this region it was already time to go back to Hong Kong. Despite this trip being only 24 hours long it felt a lot longer because we were able to do so much and experience the city.
My favorite part of the trip was getting to use my Mandarin minor for the first time ever really. Although half of the people speak Cantonese and half speak Mandarin, most of them knew what I was trying to say. I was really impressed with myself because I was not sure if I was going to remember what I had learned in my Northeastern classes. In some scenarios it was crucial that I had the ability to communicate otherwise we would not have been able to get around and know where we were going.
Even when we had wifi we were unable to use any of our applications because in China almost all American applications are blocked, including Google, Snapchat, Google Maps, Google Translate, Facebook, and basically any form of communication. This made things a little bit more difficult but we used it to our advantage as well. This forced us to not look at our phones for the entire trip which led to some great conversations and allowed us to truly take in the city without any distractions. I think that I am not exposed to situations like that often enough anymore.
Overall, I would highly recommend making the trip to Shenzhen if you are in Hong Kong, even if you only have a day to spare like we did. It is a beautiful city and so nearby that it would be silly to skip it. Shanghai and Beijing may be bigger names, but Shenzhen has a lot to offer. I still cannot believe I woke up in Mainland China this morning, one of the most influential countries in the world and now I am back in Hong Kong. I am already looking forward to returning when I visit Shanghai in December.
