christof's blog

Shenzhen Frenzy

The first week in Hong Kong has passed already and was concluded with a daytrip to neighboring mainland-China Shenzhen city, a 12M metropolis which used to be a fishing village only 30 years ago.
Though only 30km away from HKG downtown (unfortunately for the air pollution spillover) it is still a ~2 hrs. passage to take local transportation and the KCR trains or direct busses, because you have to cross both the HK and the Chinese border. Also, if you don't have it already, you need to obtain a mainland China (or a special 5 day Shenzhen only) visa at the border post, which costs between HK$ 300 (US$40).
At Shenzhen I had the pleasure to have lunch with our local team in a very nice seafood restaurant. We cheered on a successful launching year of db4o in China and were bullish on the opportunities for 2007.
Before and after lunch we went to some of the huge IT shopping malls (picture), where you can buy a lot of cheap commodity electronics but no "latest" gadgets (better to get those in HK, SIN or Taipeh). The visit was well worth it. You walked through never ending halls of little stands selling computers or - mostly - parts. One could get a fresh, cheap and assumingly illegal copy of Windows Vista directly from the copy station.
Like the entire city, it was full of people whereever you looked. Everybody was busy, and people's faces looked very tired (though it was a sunny Saturday).
We concluded the day with a relaxing massage in the Shangri-La Club, a very nice and clean facility with a big spa, body rub, 2 hrs massage, relaxation and food - a full afternoon pleasure for only US$20 per head.
Back in Hong Kong in the evening felt like coming home, though. So civilized and Western... compared to the Shenzhen frenzy.

posted by Christof Wittig @ 10:29 PM