bigmo23

Hi all,



Im new to the forum and have joined because I have just accepted a position in Shenzhen. I was just wondering if there was anywhere on here who was also in Shenzhen and wanted some tips. The main one is where do most expats live in Shenzhen? My school is in Nanshan, and they are providing me with an acoomodation allowance.

Also is there anything like a migrate one way ticket, which allows more baggage allowance on the flight to China? Any info would be great!

Thanks

Big Mo

DollyMo

Hi,
How are you getting on in Shenzhen? I assume you are still out there? Me and tpr007 are moving out at the end of May. Any tips or advice you can provide us with?
Thanks
Aimee

bigmo23

Hi DollyMo,
Yeah I'm still here. Getting on fine, although I'm leaving in a few months (got a job in Madrid). What do you want to know? If your flying in, fly into Hong Kong, there is an airport taxi from there which brings you to Shenzhen for about 150 HKD. And its a much easier flight, Chinese domestic flights are delayed very often. In terms of bringing stuff, you get almost everything here, except decent breakfast cereals. There's an online grocery called nogogo, check them out for an idea of what you can get.
Thats all that comes to mind straight away, let me know if there's any specific questions you have. Also remember next to no one speaks English here! so make sure you have addresses written in Chinese for taxi drivers!

DollyMo

Excellent. It sounds like you've had a great experience out there! Thank you for the tips and advice that is really helpful. Good luck with the next stage of your adventure

ex reg

Just poking my nose in.
When we lived in HK I had to give some seminars to railway managers over in Shenzen.
I found the place almost unliveable but was only there a few days.

If Bigmo23 is leaving after about one year perhaps there is a reason which might help possible future posters if it is given.

I can see that posters could well/might possibly enjoy their time there but it can be a western trait that 'yeah our holiday was terrific, 'yeah it was a great place to work', 'yeah the job was fine', when perhaps the real opinion might be more helpful to others.

I'm not meaning to disparage any posts but what I read in this thread is so opposite as to what I felt and I've lived in many places in Asia Africa and the Middle East.

No problem having an opposite opinion.

hong_konger

Although I am a long term resident of HK I have rarely visited Shenzhen but from my experiences I would tend to agree with ex reg. However, I understand that Shenzhen has developed somewhat over the past few years and is not as bad as it was a few years ago.

Something people don't often realize until they get here is exactly how close Shenzhen is to Hong Kong. Many people including school kids commute daily both ways. If you live in the New Territories its actually quicker to get to Shenzhen than it is to Central !

amcgr

I visited Shenzhen in 2012 as part of a tour of the PRD region. Spent 3 days there and yes, despite cultural similarities, it's hugely different from HK. As others have said, there is less English spoken (sometimes none) whilst the economy is obviously much more inward looking. I would imagine there would be a fairly sizeable expat community but its definitely not as easy to integrate there one would imagine.

bigmo23

sorry didnt mean to be cryptic in my last post about the reasons for leaving. Im only leaving because I dont enjoy my job here and have found a better school to work at. In terms of Shenzhen itself, apart from the non english thing (which can be a big barrier) I actually like the city. The people can be friendly and helpful, there is almost everything you want available here. I dont have much to do with the expat population here tbh. I dont really hang out in those areas, so dont really socialise with expats, other then people I work with. So I wouldnt crticise the city, the metro is fantastic and as others have said, it is sooo close to HK. However word of advice if you are planning a commute to HK everyday, immigration queues are crazy long, it once took my wife and I 4 hours to get through!

postmod

I'm new to this forum and have only lived in this part of South China since December. I went to Shenzhen for the first time with a colleague who has high regards for Shenzhen; but for me, tbh, I was skeptical as I had read so many poor reviews of this SEQ from the British papers and in GZstuff forums.
Much to my surprise, I was struck by the greenery and beauty of the ranges of lush mountains, trees and the variety of bushes in the motorway islands. We didn't have much time to go into central but I spent a few hours at Dameisha which was packed on this public holiday weekend. The crowd was too much for me at times though we spoke to the police who were most sympathetic, kept a lookout for us and put us on the right bus... we had fun talking to a very friendly driver and passengers and even waved to some lads sitting on the pavement. There was a beach atmosphere everywhere and people were dressed in all kinds of crazy fashion; some even in high heels and umbrellas.
The only negative I saw was the rubbish, mainly kebab sticks that those mostly young Chinese just threw on to the pavements. That was a pity but it didn't spoil my impression of Shenzhen. Its mountains are unrivalled anywhere in the world. Then we went to the national Theatre (?) and that was Singapore, GZ and trendy cities the world all over. I must admit, there were many things I'd gladly buy especially the Osim message chair.