Shenzhen Museum

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Shenzhen Museum is located in the heart of Shenzhen in the Civic Centre complex at Futian. Booking a ticket online was fairly straight forward using their WeChat account/mini programme, I can't remember which one it was, and the WeChat translate function. Getting in was pretty straight forward too, health code check, green arrow (travel code) check, and then ticket check. I don't think the woman even looked at my ID. I was happy to get out of the heat and into the air conditioned building. The museum has three floors and I started on the ground one. The first exhibition that I had a look around was a temporary exhibition, since it was a temporary one, there were no English explanations and not even the name was in English so I was pretty clueless as to what it was about. Later I went back and took a picture of the title board, which when ran through translate made no sense. Anyway, it seemed to be wood and lacquer exhibition. I liked some of the items on display. Some people are so skilled to be able to make these things. In the atrium, there was a big piece on display and it reminded me of my visit to the Chen Clan House in Guangzhou a few years ago. There was a bit of English about here and I found out it was either from or related to the pieces in the Chen Clan House in Guangzhou. I'm not sure if this was related to the exhibition I'd just seen or not.

The other exhibition hall on the ground floor was called 'Approaching the Emotional World of Animals'. This was a collection of stuffed(?) animals that had been donated by someone called Mr. Behring. I had no idea who he is/was. The exhibit was split into four sections; Prairie, Desert, Forest and Artic. Not my cup of tea, so I had a quick walk through before heading up to the next floor. The first place I visited here was the ‘Ancient Shenzhen Exhibition'. It was interesting to learn about the first people to settle in Shenzhen over 7,000 years ago as people migrated to the Dapeng Bay area of Shenzhen and lived a life of fishing, hunting and farming. This piqued my interest as I would be visiting Dapeng in a few weeks. They then spread out over the area and their descendants lived through the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. I wonder if this is where the confusion lies in the origins of Shenzhen as some sources say it was a fishing village and others say it was an agricultural area. Modern Shenzhen is a huge city that covers a large area and was only named Shenzhen in 1979, before that it was known as Bao'an County and I'm not sure if the coastal region of Dapeng was included then. It was interesting to learn more about the Hakka people. These are Han people, originally from the northern parts of China, that moved further south to escape war and famine and mixed with the indigenous people and evolved into the Hakka over many centuries. There are a few Hakka villages in Shenzhen that I would like to visit and I am partial to a bit of Hakka cuisine.

The next exhibition was 'Modern Shenzhen'. The Opium Wars is the starting point for modern China, which is on my list of things to learn more about. This list only seems to get longer never shorter. This was really interesting, there was a fair bit of propaganda, I enjoyed learning more about Shenzhen and seeing the diorama of the first Congress of the Communist Party of Bao'an County. There was also some artwork on display that I enjoyed looking at. The last exhibition hall on this floor was the 'Shenzhen Folk Culture Exhibition'. This showcased the cultures of the Regional, Cantonese, Hakka and Maritime people of the area. It was nice to walk through and see the displays of what life had been like in the past. I like seeing all the old stores that sold tea, cloth and other daily necessities, and traditional celebrations such as weddings and festivals.

I headed up to the top floor and the exhibition entitled 'The Exhibition Hall of the Reform and Opening-up History in Shenzhen'. This details Shenzhen's transformation and recent history from when it became a Special Economic Zone under Deng Xiaoping. It was good to learn more about it and there was a lot of stuff covering many different aspects of the city. It was a bit of an information overload by the end of it, so it was nice to head out onto the balcony area and take in the surrounding views. I think there is a roof top area that would give even better views, but it was closed off. Even the viewing platform on this floor was closed off so you couldn't get close to the edge. I'm blaming the recent typhoon for this. The view was still great, I loved the lush greenery of the trees and then the big mirrored skyscrapers jutting upwards. If it had been a bit cooler, I would have liked to have spent longer out there. There seemed to be another exhibition hall on this floor, but it didn't look properly open, so I skipped it.

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