I had a choice of two locations for my temporary housing (zanshi gongyu…basically) in Shenzhen: Shekou or Futian. The agent in charge of booking my housing was surprised when I requested Futian. Shekou is the westernmost part of urban Shenzhen, is the location of the popular ferry terminal (popular with foreigners anyway), and easily the most cosmopolitan. Futian District is more central, residential, and more “native”. Downtown Shenzhen, in the Luohu District, is further to the east. My criteria was simple: 1) Pick the place that was more native and 2) Pick the place closest to a subway stop. So, Futian wins on both counts. It’s not as nice as the joint in Shekou, but that’s fine with me.

This apartment is a good example of a typical, higher end, Chinese apartment. It’s not exactly to my liking: the hard bright tiles make for an echoey room, but I’m adaptable. The kitchen is small and, of course, has no oven, but since when did I cook in China, especially when there’s much better food to be found in the numerous restaurants. The furnishings and styles within are sterile by Western standards. Also very typical was the location of the dryer – in an exterior cubbyhole that faced on to a 27-story drop down to the road below. Those not fond of heights would soon have a pile of dirty clothes.

Here are some pictures of the interior:

I like the big window looking out over this part of the city. There are some nice cushions for comfortably sitting against the window while typing up blog entries. Here are the views (straight across and at an angle):

On the top floor is an observation deck and a small workout facility, which I’m too lazy and busy to use. I went up at night to take this nice panorama of the surroundings (I’m figuring out how to do night shots with this versatile little camera):