Shenzhen and HK

Shenzhen is a place full of immigrants...people from all parts of China calls it home now....

You go around the place and you will easily hear various chinese accents and dialects...

Sometimes I think it try hard to emulate HK....but still retaining aspects of a typical chinese city...

Now what is a typical chinese city?

I can say that the large chinese cities have grubby streets, heaps of people from all parts of China (population > 5 million), different types of shops selling all kinds of fascinating items, different types of restaurants, different smells (usually VERY "INTERESTING"), and an abnormally high volume of noise!

But are fast-growing chinese cities safe?

Other than my pickpocket experience in Wuhan, thankfully I have not come to harm! But I have heard so many horror stories that I am quite wary....
Come to think about it, it was indeed quite scary actually about what happened in Wuhan...
I was a silly silly girl to react....should have just walked quietly away....

I have only seen industralized cities in China and have not really explored the so-called Culture cities...(Suzhou, Xi An, Nanjing, Beijing, capital of Yunnan?..etc..)
Perhaps I will find out more?

Anyone care to join me?

I was speaking to my college friend Jin earlier and he was suggesting that I organize a get-together trip in China. So anyone interested in trying to explore the chinese cities/regions? Any suggestions? Email me!

Hong Kong is a metropolis and it is also a city full of migrants ( a little different mix though: expatriates and other races...)
However there seems to be an underlying vibe of division still....

Perhaps due to the differences in rentals and property prices, there is a visible divide as to where the expatriates and the locals live...and this could be that underlying vibe which I feel...

The heartland of HK in Kowloon and Shatin is quite different than places in MidLevels, HK Island (west), Repulse Bay and Discovery Bay..
Somehow the lifestyles and expectations, as well as the vibes being sent are all different.
I don't really know how to express it out...

It is even more apparent than in Singapore....the HDB heartlands do not feel as different from places down at Bt. Timah and Stevens Road...

What do the SIngaporeans think?

I have not been in Shenzhen long enough or ample times to really examine the city as much as I have in HK.

And I haven't been in HK long enough to really examine it more closely. It's just the vibes which I feel for these two places which resulted in the overall thoughts..

Overall Shenzhen feels like it has a developing city feel, always on the move upwards and eager to emulate its bigger cousin, HK. HK on the other hand, does not have that positive a vibe as before, but it is improving from the dismal times of SARs and post-SARs days.

Even the cabbies have gotten ruder now...perhaps business has indeed picked up from last year!

Hey, I have a suggestion! Use the customer satisfaction from treatment from cab drivers in HK as a guide to economic growth! That could be a measureable KPI which could be a proxy for how the economy is performing!
I betcha it is pretty accurate!

I am writing this from the wireless network! Didn't even know this hotel has one! I betcha I have inadvertly found a wireless node somewhere outside of this hotel, with a range that my laptop has captured!
Cool!
I hacked into a free wireless network service accidentally!

Okie dokie...going off now...
Too tired...

Just got back from the office at 12.30.......and I had woken up early this morning to come to HK! (hehe you should know I am not an early bird! But I have improved!).....brain dead now...

And tomorrow I will be heading back to Shenzhen again...
What fun I am going to have going through the border crossing, with its masses of people!

Sigh....I do like the travels and the experiences it brings, but I do crave for some stability and spending time with my loved ones.....