Shenzhen Travel Guide

Introduction

Guangdong Province on the border with Hong Kong, 163km (102 miles) SE of Guangzhou

In the 1980s, Shenzhen grew seemingly overnight from nothing to a metropolis. The growth spurt came at the instigation of then-supreme leader Deng Xiaoping, and remains the primary symbol of the reform and opening policy he initiated. It's equally a symbol of everything that's wrong with what China has become -- a jostle of shanty-towers with a rootless, money-grubbing, gone-in-a-day atmosphere. Hardly anyone's a native, and many Chinese are here illegally. Far from finding the get-rich-quick scheme of their dreams, often many of these workers end up in sweatshops or prostitution. Seemingly oblivious to the city's terrifying growth in violent crime, the authorities seem to believe that even more expansion will cure all ills. To this end, Shenzhen is trying to remake itself, attempting to disassociate itself from the fake handbag shops that line the border and focusing instead on a spanking...