Shenzhen - Windows of the World

Shenzhen - a walk across the border from Hong Kong. It's actually quite a hassle to get to the other side since it's technically in Mainland China. I used my first mainland China visa visit to visit this city of fake goods. Apparently, you can even get fake eggs! Ann and I ventured to guess that maybe they replaced the real eggs with egg-shaped potatoes...Who knows.

Shenzhen is quite a sketch city. A friend of mine (whose actually in HK for more than a year!) got robbed - you'd think of all people, he would know not to put his wallet in his back pocket. Silly. I suppose it's a lesson learned.

Everybody you meet in Shenzhen speaks Putonghua...I found that out the hard way. And they hardly speak English...except when they want you to buy a DVD. They just say "DVD, DVD" repeatedly like a tape recorder. I was with my German and American friend looking for a nice tailor to get their suits made. It was like walking through actual mainland China where vendors bombard you with fliers and comments. But apparently, it wasn't as bad because they were with me (since I'm Asian?) than if they were by themselves.

It's worth a visit to Shenzhen. But just one. It's actually a boring city. But who would have known that 20 years ago, it was all rural? It's a different atmosphere from Hong Kong...and they drive on the right side of the road :-)

Here are some highlights from "Windows of the World," where they build miniature versions of popular/famous tourist attractions from all over the world.

I found Russia!

It's like a child's playground!

From the view of the Eiffel Tower

This is how they have fun in Shenzhen....

I hopped the fence and almost yelled at....but it was worth it :-)