概述
Shenzhen is quite a different city, comparing with Taipei; it's much a modern city featured with various kinds of skyscrapers, broad highways...etc. It has all the characteristics a continental city has, high buildings, broad highways ...everything big!
There are many strangers live in this city. I am going to be one of them as well, I think. Basically it's an immigrant city with population of 14 million. Thanks to strict household registration regulation here in China, the city’s registered residents are of only 2 million which are “really” local. So, strangers are in fact the majority of residents here. Therefore, Cantonese is not often heard/spoken; instead one can hear all kinds accents of Mandarin as well as dialects. Its population is about 2/3 of Taiwan and growing, and density is almost twice of Taipei (SZ, 13,400 per sq. km; TPE, 9,600).
(photo was taken from website of http://members.virtualtourist.com/)
各種車輛的喇叭聲不絕於耳
The city is noisy, cars, buses and motorcycles are honking their horns all the time. But this is actually the very characteristics of South Eastern Asian cities, not something unique with Shenzhen. So, this cannot be counted as something special to the city but it is indeed one of the most noticeable features of the city any visitors can easily find.
Such noises made by drivers annoyed me the most. It's quite common for any driver to keep honking for half a min or even longer as if they were in a competition of honking.
Besides, some motorcyclists made use motorcycles for people transportation biz. These motorcyclists have been irritating me the most. They rode motorcycles and kept honking, especially when they rode nearer you. They did not just ride on the highway, they rode on pavement, too. They rode in the fast lanes, in opposite direction, ...etc., they never failed to honk whenever they rode near perdestrian.
物價不亞於台北
In addition, I was surprised to find out that the living cost here is higher than Taipei. Of course, I did not live the life like the real local people. I do not eat at or buy food from those street peddlers; in fact, I hardly did that in Taiwan, either. I think of one thing might make you know I am not exaggerating about living cost. The prices of food sold at McDonald's and KFC here are all more expensive than Taipei. This might mostly be resulted from appreciation of TWD in late 2010, whose value rises about 10%. Besides, McDonald’s in Taipei offered kinds of discount which cannot be found as many here.
The fruit, shampoo, necessities, restaurants as long as you choose any quality products, most likely they are more expensive. I did not cook so I could not give any ideas about the produces.
Due to personal income is much lower here, so the service is generally cheaper here. That's why all the night clubs in HKG closed, no longer in the biz. And many Taiwanese like to have massage when they come to Shenzhen.
排隊是一種陌生的行為
People don’t stay in line for getting on buses, trains, etc. Well, such a behavior is also often seen in Taipei, but it’s no popular phenomenon in Taipei. If you stayed in line and told the people who cut in to respect such a more civilized way of behavior, most cases the person would feel surprised and even annoyed. Getting on bus is more like a sports, a kind of competition, everyone exercises his/her capability or fitness trying to get on. Even when I had one foot step on the bus, there were many times someone thrusting in front of me from my flank. One time, there were limited seats on the shuttle bus, and no standing passenger is allowed. I got on the shuttle bus already and paid the fare, someone just thrust in and got the only seat left. The driver instead of asking the late-comer to get off, he asked me to leave the bus. Why? “Why you did not get the seat first?” Well, this is the norm here.
面子工程
Universiade (世界大學生運動會) is going to be held here in Aug, so there are kinds of construction sites on the work besides the construction of stadiums, gyms, pools..etc. Among them, many of those are called, "face construction" or "face works". The facades of buildings on sides of major highways in the city are being renovated. It must be fabulous when Univesiade starts here "face" is the most critical issues.
Besides, as mentioned the above, there are 14 million residents in this city. The city authority decided to “expel” 80 thousand potential criminal wrongdoingers out of the city before Universiade to make sure things will go smoothly.
Not just for Universiade there would be some "face works" which in fact become the culture everywhere. For example, all the new buildings appear quite pretty but when you check them out closely you will find the quality of the material the buildings used is quite poor, and craftsmanship also left much to be desired.
亂丟垃圾
"Littering is a common misconduct in Taipei", if I talked about the issue in Taipei I could have said so. But we can hardly see anyone actually litter but only the garbage or cigarette butts on the ground, or some cans in the bushes. Nevertheless littering is very POPULAR here. Even in the elevator of the apartment (in a rather nice neighborhood) I stayed, there was littering most of time. Kids just threw the wrap of candies carelessly without any scruple, so do the most of adults. There are many people tidying up the streets, bus stops, ...etc. I sometimes think such common behavior in this society is helpful to those disadvantaged. Or even the mechanism designed to ease the unemployment.
貧富差距
In the downtown of the city, Mercedes, BMW, Audi are often seen, Porsche, Maserati, Bentley was also seen on the streets from time to time. A French marketing consultant said, the hierarchy concept in Chinese society is very prevailing, however, the reference to social stance was gone in modern society, and the only thing left is money. Therefore people use good cars, big house and luxury goods to communicate their society status. That’s why this Jan Chinese visitors contributed up to 60% of sales revenue of French luxury goods in France. (PLS refer to the report made by Deutsche Welle’s Podcast, “European Business Week: Sun, Sand and Currency, dated Mar. 12.) Perhaps, it’s pretty much the same in Taiwan, but most of rich men there tend to keep low profile, rather than showing off their fortune.
Many of the poor people are scavengers, which is common in all societies. One can easily find lots of garbage around the trash cans outside specially in the morning, which are mostly contributed by scavengers. However, scavengers contributed dearly to recycle in China, which is the good side they brought with. In Taipei, the authority takes part in “recycle”, therefore the environment looks cleaner. But for the poor, one of the means of living was actually deprived of. The residents started to recycle, consequently scavengers became much harder to make a living.
落塵重
Shenzhen by all means is a very dusty city. It’s fast growing all kinds of constructions are on going all year round, building houses, highways, pavements, stadiums, stations, as well as demolish them.
潮濕
In a misty day, you can easily find a filmy coat of water covering everything in the house if you left the windows open. It’s said such super humid days come in the spell between late March and May, so I actually just start to experience its humidity.
游泳池
The swimming pools are generally bigger than those in Taipei. However, it costs much more than those in Taipei, too. The one I went was in Futian Tiyu Gong Yuan / Futian Sports Park, it charged RMB40.- per an adult. In Taipei, it costs only TWD110.- In addition, the design of the pools is rather different than those in Taipei. Perhaps, I can say, here the pools are purer. They meant for swimming and even for competition. But those in Taipei are meant for leisure, besides the main swimming pools, there will always SPA pool, sauna …etc. The temperature of water is different, too. Those in Taipei used to keep around 29 to 30.5 degrees Celsius; in Shenzhen, it’s usually between 26 and 28, which applies international standard, but a bit cold for leisure.
Due to incoming Universiade, 2 quality pools I knew were both shut down for some improvement and renovation.
吸菸
As far as smoking is concerned, the society here is just like those in highly developed countries, like Europe, there are many people smoking. But in Shenzhen, there are not as many female smokers seen as in most European cities. Due to huge smoking population, all the public places are actually friendly toward smoker; therefore, it’s difficult to place a non-smoking restaurant. KFC & McDonald’s become 2 of my favorite restaurant not for their food but no smoking practice. To a non-smoker, smoking can be very annoying and unbearable, especially in any indoor occasion.
鳥
The birds seen here are quite different than those in Taipei. I could not name them so far, but I think I will be able to name few after I go back home checking on my books. But I could name one which is rarely seen in Taipei, 鵲鴝.
花
In these almost 2 months, 木棉 is more outstanding flowers seen in the city. There are plenty planted along the main highways. The blossom of木棉 is coming to an end about now.
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