Blogs from Shenzhen, Guangdong, China, Asia - page 5

The suitcases are getting heavier, there’s a need for some serious strategising before the long haul home, am sure there’s at least a couple pair of shoes surplus to requirement, not mine though, still Hong Kong and a gazillion malls to go, quite glad of the small trolley case to tuck the camera and computer bags into, these thoughts as we trail behind Emma in the vast Shenzhen airport, merely an indication of the shear scale of this whole area. Hamish quote, “you have to find your own bite sized chunk to live in otherwise its overwhelming.” Overwhelming it has been every day. Shenzhen has a population of about 20 million, Dongguan 6 million and Guangzhou 25 million another mega city, you cannot tell where one city ends and another begins, what do you call this. ... read more

I have found myself dead center of a swirling vortex of friend-making obstacles. I’m a 41 year old INFJ childfree expat living in a migrant city that is younger than me. Now, three of the five obstacles are by choice. I chose to be childfree. I chose to be an expat. And I chose to live in Shenzhen. But these circumstances have had consequences. Currently, if it’s 9pm and I’d like to go hang out and have a drink with a friend, I don’t have anyone that I can call. Zip. Zilch. No one. Now, before I complain, I’d like to praise. I have amazing friends. I have childhood friends that are as close to me as family. I have a very close friend in Shenzhen (you know who you are and you know I love ... read more

Weekend Outings Shenzhen is a big city and even though I tried I didn't get to do and see everything but I thought I'd talk about a few of the things I did manage to see and do during the weekends. The weekend after Destry and I went to Hong Kong, Laurent, Destry and I went to Happy Valley. Happy Valley is a theme park in Shenzhen which also has a water park. I'd never been to a proper water park before so the aim of the day was to get on all the water rides. However, when we arrived at the park the water section wasn't open so we went on a few of the theme park rides, including a roller coaster that uses a swing shot motion to activate the car, it was pretty ... read more

Dapeng is a sea side town split in to two parts. There's the newer area of Dapeng and the older area. The older area has a fortress, a temple and an area with lots of bars and restaurants (called the new fortress). From the Shenzhen Dapeng is around an hour and a half journey by bus. As Laurent lived in Dapeng, the Irish and I all spent some time in Dapeng. We had only been to the new fortress and not visited any of the historical parts. So one weekend the four of us decided to go there for that reason. Unfortunately Val was leaving to return to America that day so couldn't join us. We had gone out for a meal the evening before to say goodbye. We started by going to the fortress, a ... read more

Trip details: Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Vancouver, Toronto, Sudbury, Toronto (again), Beijing, Langfang, Beijing (again), and back to Shenzhen. (Pictures: Toronto, Sudbury, Beijing, Langfang, and Shenzhen) Last Few Days Before the Flight Back ... :^( My time in China was coming to a close. At least my first trip in this foreign land far from Canada. I must admit that I have seen very little of China over the past 9 months. The simple beauty of Jinhua, Jishou, and Wuhan; the tourist-traps of Guangzhou and Shenzhen: all this made some of the sights of Paris pale in my memories. It has been a wonderful adventure but, with 4 days left here, I started realizing how much I still had not seen. It was earlier than my originally planned return date of February 19th (2016) and slightly forced ... read more