On my last day in China I headed south from Guangzhou to Shenzhen. Shenzhen was once a small fishing village, but is now the site of a very modern Chinese city. Shopping for clothes, household goods, and especially electronics, is the main attraction here.
The train is very clean and efficient. The signed are, of course, in Chinese - by there are English notices. I found that once you can recognize the city names you are OK. This board shows the trains and times from Guangzhou East to Shenzhen 广州东➡︎深圳 . You must have a ticket in advance. I believe you need it in hand several hours in advance. I used the concierge at the hotel, but you can get one online as well.
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| 广州东➡︎深圳 |
About 10 minutes before your train is scheduled to leave, they call all passengers to line up on the platform. There are assigned seats on the ticket, with the coach and seat numbers in Arabic (1,2,3...). The corresponding queue on the platform is also marked. Makes it easy to get where you need to go.
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| Train at station |
One note: Don't lose your train ticket. You will need it to exit the rail system.
My day was determined to be a wet one. The sun poked itself out once or twice, but mostly it was a rainy one. Nothing for it except to slog through it.
The train station in Shenzhen is very much like a shopping mall. Plenty of restaurants and convenience stores.
The real mall is next door though. A place for watches, luggage, tea, clothes, and other sundry items. The Luohu Commercial City has plenty of knock-offs to choose from. Be prepared to be hassled by every shopkeeper. Most of the shops fall into a few categories, so there is no real need to through all the floors. Best to get on the Metro and head to Dong Men.
The Metro
A word on the Shenzhen Metro - clean.
Seriously though, it's the best way to get around the city. Here's how it works for tourists:
Get in line and get a token.
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| Get in line for the machines |
You select your destination and number of riders on the map on the kiosk and pay the price indicated. A trip to Dong Men from LuoHu is only a few RMB. The machines take coins (where indicated) or 5RMB bills.
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| The token |
The token is electro-active - it can be recognized by the turnstiles. Tap the disk on the reader and the gate opens. Once you complete your trip you deposit the coin at the exit turnstile. Don't lose the token or you will have to buy another one.
Unlike in Hong Kong, a single token is good to transfer to other lines at the connecting stations as shown on the map.
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| Shenzhen Metro Map |
Dong Men
A shopping district with many department stores and restaurants (KFC and McDonalds among them), and a lot of street food and vendors. I found the Starbucks was comfortable (as usual) and I was able to recharge my phone and laptop while getting out of the rain with a cup of tea.
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| Dong Men Shopping |
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| Dong Men Eating |
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The green and white Metro symbol.
The underground stations are massive shopping malls too |
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| She was selling all manner of seafood treats |
Hua Qing Bei
Love gadgets? This is the place where they are born and where they go to die. Apple, Samsung, and most other companies are here selling laptops, phones, tablets, household electronics and appliances, hi-fi, wifi, and car stereo. You name it.
Upstairs in any of the buildings are rows and rows of folks tearing things apart - or rebuilding them, I couldn't tell. It was all very chaotic.
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| Stores go back at least 100 yards from the storefront and are filled with everything |
Tropical Shenzhen was a pleasure to visit. The rain held off enough to enjoy the day, and even see a sight or two.
The best guide I've found to the city is here
http://wikitravel.org/en/Shenzhen
