Our top tips for enjoying a stay in super Shenners

Text Catharine Nicol

Shenzhen is China’s Disneyland of the world – on steroids. It is where Mainland China’s youth come to live, work and play, and they set a frantic pace as they embrace their Eastern past, Western present and world-conquering future. This pulsating, chaotic and infinitely fun part of the Motherland has officially embraced everything materialistic and hedonistic, and as a result has some of the best no-holds-barred shopping, eating, entertainment and partying anywhere in the region.

1 主題公園

Shenzhen is Theme Parks ‘R’ Us. The Eiffel Tower, Taj Mahal and Leaning Tower of Pisa rub shoulders at Window of the World WOW (www.szwwco.com), while Splendid China (www.cn5000.com.cn/english) is China in a nutshell. Up the kitsch levels at Minsk World (www..szminsk.com), a real, live aircraft carrier combining raw engineering, Russian culture and laugh-out-loud dancing skits. But the big daddy of them all is OCT East (en.octeast.com/about). Hop aboard the elevated steam train and get a bird’s eye view of Swiss village Interlaken in China, or take in the three parks of Knight, Tea Stream and Wind Valleys.

2 Posh Hoteis

The obscene amounts of disposable wealth in Shenzhen has seen big hotel brands flock to the city, with the JW Marriott (www..jwmarriottshenzhen.com), Futian Shangri-La (www.shangri-la.com/futian) and the Grand Hyatt Shenzhen (www.shenzhen.grand.hyatt. com) being the most recent newbies. One of the established classics is the Spanish InterContinental Shenzhen (www.ichotelsgroup. com), where being welcomed by doormen in pink tights is a highlight, but check out the sandy beach and Galleon Bar too. For high-end elegance it’s got to be the executive floor at The Ritz-Carlton Shenzhen (www.ritzcarlton.com/ shenzhen) – don’t miss Paletto, their Italian restaurant. And for a crazy warren of affordable and designer-tastic abodes check out the 100 wildly different rooms at Vision Fashion Hotel (www.visionfashionhotel.com).

3 Top

Shopping in Shenzhen has so surpassed the questionable delights of Lohu Commercial City – although if you want a favourite piece of clothing copied, that’s still the place to go. Dong Men Pedestrian Street (www.expatsz.com) offers the mayhem of insane designs at insanely cheap prices sold by insane sales people, making for one hell of a China experience. Take the volume down – but only a tad – at MixC (www.themixc.com), one of the city’s most buzzing malls where luxury brands’ flagships are racking up millions in RMB sales. Coco Park and KingGlory Plaza aren’t far behind, and Hua Qiang Bei is full of sophisticated electronic gizmos for professional geeks.

4 Sports

For a city of entrepreneurs so hell-bent on business it’s no surprise that golf is the sport to play. Central is the Shenzhen Golf Club (www.chinasgc.com) – ask your hotel’s concierge if you can get a round in on one of the three 9-hole par 36 members’ only courses. Take to your skates at MixC’s Olympic-size World Ice Arena (www.. worldicearena.com), where Thursday nights is Ladies’ Night, full of both sexes triple toe looping and salchowing like mad. The Indoor Alpine Ski Run at WOW is a surreal but cool 4,000 square metres of indoor piste.

5 Bargain Spas

Spa-ing Shenzhen style is all about spending hours socialising, eating, sleeping – oh and getting a massage or foot rub too. Queen Spa (www.queenspa.cn) is the undisputed no-frills king of them all; hire their metallic gold Rolls to take you back to your hotel. All the five-stars have indulgent sanctuaries, for example Quan Spa (www.quanspa.com) at the JW Marriott is an underwater-themed cocoon of a spa, while the Marco Polo’s contemporary Mandara Spa (www.. mandaraspa.com) offers Oriental treats.

6 Neat Eats

Pipette at the InterContinental is all style and substance, Shizuku is Japanese cuisine to die for courtesy of the JW Marriott, and Fook Lam Moon is the Futian Shangri-La’s altar to Cantonese cuisine. Out on the streets there’s every kind of Chinese cuisine but try Coco Park (www.cocopark.cn), an alfresco chaos of different cuisines washed down with urns of beer, and Modern Toilet Restaurant (www.mtoilet.com) where you sit on the ‘throne’ while tucking into poo-shaped twirls of chocolate ice cream, sipping on lemon squash out of a mini urinal. Class!

7 Day Trips

Take a taxi along the new highway and it’s only 40 minutes to the Sheraton Dameisha (www.sheraton.com/dameisha), for the city’s most accessible, attractive and quiet beach. Further are Nan’Ao Bay and Xichong with longer expanses of sand. For fresh air and beautiful fairways Mission Hills (www.missionhillsgroup.com) is home to the golf’s annual World Cup, with 12 world-class courses but also a tennis academy, several phenomenal spas and great restaurants.

8 Culture

Deng Xiaoping, the acknowledged hero of Shenzhen, took it by its fishing village roots and lifted it into the commercial city it is today. Visit his statue in the Lotus (Lianhua) Mountain Park first thing in the morning to witness tai chi and fan dancing. Alternatively stroll around the Lake of the Immortals Botanical Gardens’ teahouses, lakes, pavilions and Hong Fa Temple. To understand more about Shenzhen’s Hakka culture visit the Crane Lake Fortified Hakka Village and Culture Museum. For the best aerial view of the city go to the 69th viewing floor of the 384-metre high Diwang Mansion, a symbol of modern Shenzhen (all on wikitravel. org/en/Shenzhen).

9 Going Arty

Chinese art is one of the Motherland’s most eye-catching exports and new up and coming artists may be the only ones you can afford these days. Stroll the cobbled streets at OCT Loft and you’ll have found the city’s most charming, calming art galleries – as well as design houses, shops and restaurants. For copies and commissions, for example you could put yours and your friends’ faces in a Chinese propaganda poster, there’s Dafen Art Village (www.dafenartonline.com). It’s a little out of town but worth a morning getting under the skin of the city’s talented reproduction artists. And for a look at everything avant-garde check out the He Xiangning Art Museum.

10 After Hours Powers

The Galleon Restaurant and Bar at the InterContinental (www.ichotelsgroup.com) is the place to start your evening. Drink on the upper deck as the sun goes down, then head inside for the infectiously upbeat Aussie band and crammed dance floor. C:Union (www.shenzhenparty.com) is a cool local hangout nearby, V Bar at the Crowne Plaza Hotel (www..ichotelsgroup.com) is a clubby bar of live bands, laser lights and disco balls, and Bar Street (www.szseaworld.com) at the Shekou end of town is a western-style pub crawl of stupendous proportions.