Home for next year…seen from space. Directly across the river to the south is Hong Kong’s northern territories which appear to be relatively undeveloped for now. All the information I’m getting says that we’ll be approximately a half hour from the center of Hong Kong, which is pretty freaking cool in itself. Shenzhen is home to somewhere near 8 million people, having grown that big since just 1980, when it was a village of 30,000. So it lacks some history of, say, China’s four great capitols, but it was one of Deng Xiaoping’s first four Special Economic Zones established in the late 1970s, so that has been one of the big drivers of the enormous growth. But for all the modern amenities and improvements, I’m still told that we shouldn’t drink the tap water. On the other hand, I’m excited to be in a city with a subway. I’m also hopeful that I’ll be sequestered into a highrise apartment with a great view…more on that in September.