Two things set the main theme of my maiden tour to Shenzhen, the youngest city in China.
One is a construction blueprint erected outside Baoan District Stadium marked with all sorts of building schemes and functional district plans for Baoan's future infrastructure constructions. All public facilities are virtually pictured on the now enormous clayed wastelands among construction sites. Later on however, I learned that the blueprint, designed by the British designer Atkins, is already abandoned by the District government and they decide that a dozen of changes should be made to the original scheme. Buildings are removed; parks are gone; fishing sites seen no more; art center is suspended and cinemas are miraculously turned into a blank spot. What will be their replacements is anybody’s guess. The government and the people of this land have not made up their new decisions.
The other is a news report I came across. The local TV news program reported an armed robbery at around 11 a.m. on a busy downtown street. The gunman hijacked two trucks in turn on his escape and fired one shot, injuring one of the truck drivers. His gain from this action, if successful, would be around 2000 RMB (roughly 270 USD) for that’s the amount truck drivers have on them usually. The crime however will put him into jail for 15 years if proved guilty.
Looking from the terrace of my hotel in China, Shenzhen, the landscape is filled by 20+ storied residence or office buildings, construction sites and barren lands. The land is cut into all kinds of irregular pieces, either of buildings or marked “in construction”.
This is the characteristics of Shenzhen. Still at its 20s, it has infinite possibilities and the resolution to pursue each of them. There would be mistakes and start-overs but they won’t drag his leg. The booming Chinese economy can provide this frontrunner all the things he needs to forget the failures and start anew. Like a young man, it has the right to do all those silly things. That is also why I see the change in the blueprint an understandable occasion.
However, adolescent stupidity can also result in problems that need much greater effort to resolve, like the robbery. The city is growing too fast and too rigorous now that public security service and other facilities are only striving to keep up with. On the outskirts of Shenzhen (known as Guanwai), robberies and thefts rates are higher than other parts of the country. People are used to news reports about robberies around. Most people have experiences in thefts. The government even banned the use of motorcycles for the increasing cases of speed robbery --- two men driving a motorcycle to rob necklaces or mobile phones from pedestrians.
This is only the first impression I have during my first two days in Shenzhen. However, it is also the most exciting one as other cities rarely have such vitality and so much possibility. I am eager to indulge deeper to find other possibilities as soon as the thunder storm stops.
