17 Apr 2010 – Boomtown

Fri: took the MTR & bus early, against the rush traffic and that is the best time to go to Shenzhen/深圳/SZX suburbs. The smog was getting to both my eyes and lungs, so it was just as well that there was not enough time to get to the town center in a day’s trip. This boomtown is located in the Pearl River Delta. The municipality covers an area of 2,050 sqkm including urban and rural areas, with a population of over 8mil. HKG and SZX have very close business, trade, social links and there are 6 land crossing points on the boundary. Thank you to JohnWT, for being a guide to the gardens, art terminal and museum.

SZX Garden Expo Park is 660,000sq meters which was used for China’s 5th International Garden & Flower Expo in 2004/5. Nice walk and no crowds which is a big + for me!

OCT Contemporary Art Terminal and Loft: the little shops and displays are on the commercial side and everything is for sale. Lunched at My Noddle@OCT Loft*** where the food was too salty. According to John, this place had more to see when it was first opened some years ago.

He XaingNing Art Museum: China’s 2nd national modern art museum, contains a collection of world-class modern paintings. My favourite were the little people climbing up the hill on the left staircase and climbing down on the right, rather unique and cleverly displayed. Otherwise not much to see here but then, my non-existence knowledge of modern Chinese paintings is the reason to my ignorance!

SZX Intercontinental Hotel: Doormen dressed as Matador with a Spanish theme and a sailing ship by the pool. It was too gaudy and on the flamboyant side for my simple clean-cut taste. The mainland new rich Chinese seems to like this overwhelming style.

HKG Chinese Recreation Club@Tin Hau: Appreciations to Richard YUNG (the younger brother of May YUNG, who is married to cousin LAM Kwok Lock in Canada) for a lovely dinner. How delightful to be able to catch up. Memories from the 1960s when he used to visit Dublin during his English boarding school holidays. It seems another life time ago!