I've been back a week or so, but it's only now I'm really starting to process my South China sojourn...

This is not some wild tale of intrepid travel, of hardships and challenges triumphed. Although, I was certainly nervous about what my week in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Shanghai held in store.

Before this year, I'm not even sure I'd ever even heard of Shenzhen, which to be honest, is just plain rude and ignorant of me. To me, China has always seemed to be one of the most foreign of foreign countries. The language so utterly meaningless to my uneducated ears, its characters so indecipherable. Of course, I know and have befriended many Chinese expats, but in my Western arrogance, have paid scant attention to their stories of home - other than the few bits and pieces that re-enforced the prejudices and stereotypes I already had in my head.

 

When the team from Huawei New Zealand invited me to see their Chinese base of operations first hand, I could hardly refuse. Other than passing through the airport, I'd been to Hong Kong just once before, pre-handover, more than two decades ago. Most of my knowledge of Shanghai was based on car chase scenes from spy movies and Shenzhen? As I've already admitted, for several weeks I had to keep re-reading my itinerary for the correct spelling.

I only spent a night and a morning in Hong Kong this time round and in many ways, it was much the same as I remembered; busy, but efficient. Above all, completely ambivalent towards me - not caring if I participated or just watched.

 

As I wandered the malls of Kowloon's CBD, I was intimidated by the proliferation of big name, luxury  brands everywhere I looked. Prada, Louis Vuitton, Dior, Louboutin... These are stores I feel too frumpy to even walk past, let alone set foot in, yet they were everywhere I looked. Every doorway exited by Hong Kong shoppers with armfuls of bags from those very same high end boutiques. Where did all these people come from? Where did all their money come from? I'd heard and read many stories about China's exploding middle-class, but to see it in action was another thing entirely.

This was Hong Kong though. Not real China. A hangover of western influence, infected by the capitalism of raw international trade. Things would be different once I hit the mainland, right?...

I've never crossed a border on foot before, which is the process for foreigners to pass from Hong Kong to China. We had to get out of our cars to be processed through customs which was daunting because there were dozens of serious looking officials in military uniforms at every point, but it was also slightly ridiculous because none of them seemed to be paying any attention to anything. To make the experience even more surreal, we then got back into the same cars that had brought us this far and carried on our way.

Suddenly I was in Shenzhen, the place I'd never heard of and couldn't spell. In my defence, it wasn't even a city less than 40 years ago, but in 1980 the Chinese government designated the area a "Special Economic Zone" and BANG! they were off and running.

Officially, the population is listed at a bit over 12 million, but most people seem to agree it's more like 20 and it certainly felt that big any time we had to travel anywhere. Despite how modern Shenzhen is and how first rate the roading is - wide, multi-lane motorways everywhere with more being constructed all the time - it always took an hour to get to our destination. The estimates varied wildly - "Huawei HQ? Oh, that's just 15 minutes away." "Your high-rise dinner up one of the tallest buildings in the CBD? We should be there in 45 minutes."

All lies. It took an hour every time. No matter how many lanes on no matter how many motorways, traffic was always bumper to bumper. If you think your commute in Wellington or Auckland is bad, I really suggest a quick trip to Shenzhen to gain some perspective. Luckily our Huawei hosts escorted us everywhere in luxury coaches, so these trips were comfortable enough. What's more, we weren't the only luxury vehicle on the road. I swear there was a Tesla in sight at every set of lights. Mercedes and BMWs everywhere. I don't know why I was expecting run-down, third-hand rust buckets. Not in this city. Shiny, late-model R.V.s and sedans as far as the eye could see.

I mentioned tall buildings. This seems to be something of an obsession to the Chinese. I stayed on the 117th floor in Hong Kong. In Shenzhen I walked around China's second tallest building, the Ping An Finance Centre. It's a very beautiful building as most of the skyscrapers in Shenzhen are, I suppose because it's all so new.

 

Again, the malls seemed to be mostly high end shops I couldn't afford, but it wasn't stopping the locals. I was beginning to get the impression someone had passed China the ball of consumerism and they were definitely running with it.

Apart from the unbelievable architecture, (I discuss the REALLY unbelievable stuff in my Huawei story here) I was impressed by how lush and green Shenzhen is. Between built-up areas there was dense bush and forest. In the business zones it's common to find large trees transplanted to provide colour and shade, even in brand new developments. This helped provide some relief from the underlying feeling this city was built solely to manufacture, home to high volume tech production brands like Huawei, ZTE and the infamous Foxconn.

 

This was a business trip more than a sight-seeing adventure and business seems to be what Shenzhen is all about. My few days there were strange and hot and eye-opening because it was a city more like Hong Kong than I had anticipated, but so much greener and more spread out. Certainly if I'd been alone, without a local guide, I would have found the situation very daunting because this is not really a destination set up for Western tourists and finding someone who could speak good English could be a bit of a challenge.

I would be pretty stumped if I was trying to drive my own vehicle there as we often seemed to be driving away from our destination in order to get to the correct on or off ramp.

 

If I had to sum up my lasting impression of Shenzhen in a single word, it would be, "surprise." How modern it is, the reliability and progress of the public infrastructure, the greenness, the locals' need to buy, buy, buy... it really is a city of the future. But because I was in one of the most ancient countries of the world, that came as a surprise.

 

glennzb was hosted in China by Huawei New Zealand.