I have been in Shenzhen now for nearly a week.  We arrived late at night by bus from nearby Guangzhou, after what seemed like an interminable last day in Beijing punctuated by ceremonies and events set to the sizzling backdrop of a northern Chinese summer.  I’ve become amazed by how much I can sweat in this country.  In Shenzhen we were sequestered away into a resort hotel isolated from the activity of the city, and our only real opportunities to experience it came via jaunts into Shenzhen for a thorough medical exam and interviews with the PSB, the local Chinese police.  Finally the day came when we received our assignments and were sent out into the six districts of Shenzhen.  Both myself and my pre-program friend Andrew were sent to Luo Hu (pronounced Low-Who), one of the two central districts.  The prospect was especially exciting for me, given my love of most, though not all, things urban.  There was a short signing ceremony with our schools and then we were whisked off in an overheating van to the Luo Hu Foreign Language School campus.

The neighborhood we are in is slightly removed from the city center, set apart by a small green patch of land and a reservoir, so that we live in a self-contained world of rectangular proportions and large apartment towers surrounded by densely green and steep hills. 

There are a handful of grocery stores nearby, and most other retail services we could need.  Our Chinese contact teacher even mentioned that there was a massage parlor near one of the stores, though based on things I’ve heard I may offer it a wide berth.  The area is actually lovely, similar to Hawaii in terms of vegetation and climate, and most streets are lined with trees.  There is a main commercial area, complete with the standard-issue neon signs that denote active nightlife, but it is a far cry from the busier districts of Shenzhen, which may be welcome.  Certainly our forays into the more active districts of Shenzhen seemed to imply that it is a city with a big enough scale to wear a person down after a day.

The intrepid explorers that we are, Andrew and I catalogue our bus routes and figure out where they can get us.  Luo Hu’s center is dominated by the city’s main shopping area, a pedestrian only street called Dongmen, or alternatively, Laojie.  We have only skirted this street, as every time we pass it is literally packed to the brim with thousands of black heads bobbing along in and out of the shops.  The level of activity on the streets in Chinese cities is remarkable.  There is a parallel area a few kilometers away in Futian where we met a friend last night, and it was likewise covered in people. Off the main streets they sell street food from the front of restaurants and on corners, and at night the DVD sellers emerge, offering cutthroat deals on pirated goods.  5 yuan for a DVD is only about 80 cents so even if it doesn’t work its usually worth the expense. 

Our accommodations are pretty nice.  We have neighboring rooms on the second floor of an apartment building on the school’s campus.  The units are like shotgun-style lofts, with a long, rectangular floor covered in white tile. I was gifted a large bed complete with red rose sheets, as well as a mishmash of furniture from god knows where.  Highlights include the new Chinese computers on our desks, good sized refrigerators, and fancy water coolers.  More ‘interesting’ parts are the bathroom, which has a movable shower head but no actual shower area, so that the entire room, toilet and sink included, gets sprayed during a shower.  But the water is warm.  The kitchen is also kinda funny, its simply a small room the size of a storage closet set off of my washing-machine equipped balcony.  In the kitchen I have a hot plate, microwave, little basin, and this odd machine that irradiates my dishes to kill the germs on them.  That’s what happens when the tap water isn’t safe to drink I guess.