Shenzhen Impression

Shenzhen, the city of thieves, or is it Guangzhou? In the Chinese old saying, they are the difference of 500 grams and half a kilo. I was warned, I don’t know how many times, beware of the thieves, thugs, robbers slash your hand as a easy way to steal a purse… I’ve never had so much fear for a city before I even come to the place.

The place I lived in is the only 4 star hotel around the Bao An district, I assume, since there aren’t any other proper buildings as far as I can see. The district is not in the central areas of Shenzhen, and it certainly doesn’t look like the Shenzhen I see in pictures. It looks like an average small county in China, styleless buildings, old and extremely dirty, streets are jammed with traffic, with loud horns and no obvious rules…

“Don’t go out after 6.” With the zillion times of warning from a cab driver who just cheated me into paying him twice the price, rejected my request of using the meter, and kicked me out before my destination because he is late for the shift, I started my trip.

As my work is to find the poor, the migrants, I had to ask for the dangerous areas where everyone looks at you like a piece of meat. With the help of a friend and guide, I squeezed myself into, I believe, the poorest neighbourhood of the district, or possibly in Shenzhen. Just like Harry Potter walked through the magical gate to the diagon ally, I walked through a small door behind a vendor selling smelly fish, and the sight is also awfully magical. The city has obvious forgot about this world, garbage, filth, noisy malnutritious kids, half naked men, and a row of disfigured buildings.

I started to talk to people: this is a group of people that the outside world may never understand. They are curious, when I start to talk to one, all came and watch and join in; they are angry, when I say I’m here to report, they started to tell me about all sorts of things, last year when someone next door died, no one cared, last week, my boss refuse to pay; they are fragile, when I told them we will bring in a camera and shoot them, they were so frightened and walked away, afraid that they may get into trouble. The difficulty in communicating with them is unimaginable, like we are speaking a different language, they are uneducated and self conscious, they are not sure how to protect themselves from the wealthy and powerful, so they try to shut down the whole world.

Rare people keep an open mind in the neighbourhood, they just say no, they don’t want you to explain; smarter ones listen to you, but never trust you. When I told them the shooting could make the government put more money to make your lives better, they smirked, guess I wasn’t the first one to give a very unpromising hope, or simply just a lie. They don’t believe in the government, they don’t have concept of their rights, when I tried too hard to convince them, they just say that it’s a life style they chose, no one else could help them.

Surely, I got through some less iron-like shells, and talked to those jobless, bored people. One guy was taking care of his two children, one 6, the other 1 and half. His wife is still working in the factory as Saturday is working day around the area, and he has been out of job for over half a year to take care of his kids. He was extremely shy when I said I want to take a look at their home, saying that it was untidy, I forced him anyway, prepared for any untidiness possible. The staircase was narrow and dark, the smell was horrible…his home, not enough stuff to be untidy of. The place is less than 10 square metres, 2 beds, lower one for him and a kid, upper one for wife and the other kid. The only luxury they have is an old fan, which he switched on when I walked in, like some kind of welcome. We chatted for a while, the information was difficult to get through, I don’t know if he understands, but the child was crying like hell and we couldn’t talk, he felt sorry and explained that the baby doesn’t like up here, and there’s no toy for him so he wants to go out. Oh, his wife works at a toy factory.

There are better families than them, and there are worse. I don’t know who build these buildings, but they were all separated in less than 10 square metres’ room, I talked to many others, honest ones, and bad ones, some invite you in, some shut the door to your face, some look at your handbag and ready to grab.

Mid morning, the rain storm started to pour, I haven’t seen such heavy rain in years or is it because I was in these poor neighbourhood, even when I was inside, the leaking rain from everywhere wets my shirt completely, without a proper draining system, when I walked out, garbage mixed water is half way up my ankle.

I tried to get into other neighbourhoods later, they are all better compare to this, one honest guy refused to do the interview because he thinks his place is better than others, and he was afraid that others would gossip.

Looking out my window at night, darkness covered for the filth, crowdedness, lights make the city beautiful, more beautiful than other cities. I couldn’t believe that I have walked through some most dangerous areas in Shenzhen, or maybe in their world, I’m the dangerous one.

Rain is still pouring, and according to the weather forecast, will continue for another day. The dreadful weather, the dreadful city, all is so familiar, 12 years ago, I travelled here with my parents, we were robbed 10000 Yuan, I had a narrow escape of car accident, my father was flirted by a dozen prostitutes, and strangers came on to ask whether we need forged notes… has the city changed? I really need to get down on my knee and pray.