Shenzhen, once a market town of 30,000 in 1980, underwent an extraordinary transformation to become a thriving metropolis of 20 million. Designated as China’s first Special Economic Zone due to its proximity to Hong Kong, Shenzhen is now a UNESCO Creative City and ranked as one of the top 10 cities to visit in 2019 by Lonely Planet.
Tourists flock to Shenzhen for its stunning architecture, beautiful parks, vibrant cultural arts scene, and diverse dining and shopping options. Originally known for its theme parks, the city’s appeal has grown beyond, attracting visitors with its fascinating history, including historical sites dating back to the 12th century.
Shenzhen’s planned street grids, modern infrastructure, and eco-friendly public transport make it one of China’s most disabled-friendly cities. The city’s name, meaning “deep drains,” reflects its past crisscrossed with rivers and streams.
Contrary to the misconception of being a fishing village, Shenzhen was a regional market town and the last stop on the Mainland Chinese railway from Guangzhou to Kowloon. In 1980, it was chosen as the first Special Economic Zone, marking the beginning of its rapid growth. The city’s economic development and increasing population make it a significant player in the Pearl River Delta region.
Surrounded by hills, mountains, and numerous rivers, Shenzhen’s diverse landscape includes islands like Nei Lingding Island. Despite debates about its population, estimates suggest around 20 million, with many floating migrants staying less than six months.
For travelers, Shenzhen offers a mix of modernity, rich history, and natural beauty, making it a dynamic destination to explore.
MY EXPERIENCE. Shenzhen! For me, this is more than just a huge multi-million Chinese city with a huge number of scrapers, which is located on the border with Hong Kong! Shenzhen is my second home! My native and favorite city in my life! I lived here for 6 years! Here I first started regularly earn $3000-4000 a month, and sometimes even $5000! And the way we earn money and the work we done sometimes couldn’t be considered as a job at all!))
I and my friends whom I met in this city, and continue to communicate closely with them even now (even though we are in different cities, or even in different countries) – were freelancers there! We did what we liked to do and get paid with a good money for it! But everything is relative, of course. In Europe this is the usual salary. But for Ukraine the average salary is $500 per month.
And anyway, money matters and they always will, but while we lived there we often state that money isn’t always the most important thing! Sometimes it was possible for us to reject job offer just for the sake of going on a planned island trip to Hong Kong! or rejected the better paid job, to be with friends at another job, knowing that it will be more fun there)) Many examples!
I can tell you a lot about Shenzhen, but there is not enough space even for any single story, so it’s better for me to tell you about Shenzhen in general terms.
I first came to Shenzhen in April 2014. After leaving Guangzhou, and after a week or 10 days leaving Dongguan.
Somehow I immediately found a luck in this city! I was asked to photograph an event in Shenzhen. They offered me 1000 yuan ($160), a place to stay in appartment, and if everything went well, they even offered me the opportunity to work full time. And this was exactly what I was looking for!
And I’ve worked as a photographer for them for six months, until the end of 2014! 🙂 There was an office in a tall skyscraper in the city center, near the Ganxia metro station. There was free housing from the company, in very nice spacious apartments (I had my own room) near the Wuhe metro station. I got to my office from home by bus in 30 minutes, if there were no traffic jams.
I was paid 500 yuan for a small event and 1000 for a large one. And there were around 10 events per month. So the conditions were very good, and taking into account the first months of 2014, when I was unemployed in Guangzhou – it was even perfect! 🙂
Initially, the company planned to hire a photographer for 1 month to collect events and fill the site with an abundance of photos from various events in Guangdong province.
In 6 months, I managed to meet key people, make friends and start freelancing, not only as a photographer, but also as a model! And it was even easier!
Then I started went to the gym. I was trying to gain muscle mass. But it didn’t work out! That’s where I met a friend who taught me how to exercise properly, how to eat, and I finally started gaining muscles! So, with a height of 190 cm, I was able to go from 72 kg to 86 kg! And this was just within a six months! And then I’ve got more modeling job much easy!
In 2015, it got to the point where were able to do 3 different jobs in a day as freelancer! Our work was simple. Put on a suit, white shirt, shoes, and stand at the entrance to take pictures with Chinese customers coming to the event. So, sometimes before lunch it was possible to do 1 welcome job, after lunch until the evening the 2nd welcome job, and then go to a neighboring city to a club, and work there, stand near the entrance with a naked torso and take pictures with the Chinese customers coming for party – means 3-d welcome job in one day!
For one such welcome job they paid 1000-1200 yuan ($150-170), that is, doing 3 such works we were able to earn ~$450-500 in one day! 🙂
We also had shooting for photo and video advertising. Shooting clothes with an hourly rate, where they paid an average of 600 yuan ($100) per hour!
So when I was told at my main job as a photographer that we already had enough photographs (and I understood that the reason was different – the company could not successfully enter the Chinese market with its alcoholic products) – I was not upset at all! 🙂
I could already rent an apartment for myself with my own money and live fully on my own! So I did! And I began my full-time freelance life!
We worked out in the gym about 4 times a week. We monitored our diet. Used sports nutrition. We were driving from one job to another! We were constantly on the phone, in the WeChat application, where we looked for work again and again, adding new agents and so on! It got to the point that some guys had reached the limit of 5,000 contacts. These were contacts of both the boys and girls artists themselves, and the Chinese agents who offered work.
Over time, we even began to establish our own rules. What should be the minimum wage, and so that no one agrees to work for less! That is, as we said then – “let’s keep the price!”
If we take a break from this bustle, which was our norm in freelance life. I can say that acquaintances or “making friends” were made at these jobs too. I mean with girls. Some guys prefer our girls, and some are – Chinese. At first, I paid attention only to our girls, or European girls. But since 2015, I was so overwhelmed that I started paying attention only to Chinese girls! 😀
And then one of my friends showed me the Chinese dating app called TanTan. And in addition to real dating, I began to use it too. In general, there can be a lot of stories. And here to cover all the stories it’s better to write a book! 😀
But everything was not always perfect! There were days when they could get screwed at work: some agent could disappear and not pay money. According to my calculations, I was not paid $1000 for 2 jobs I did. But I had a back, I always returned to my home, I could meet with friends and talk, or I could be alone with the girl who was with me at that time.
About the development of Shenzhen in my era of freelancing, I could observe the fact that in 2014, when I came here first there were only 5 metro lines in Shenzhen! When Covid-19 flourished and in mid-February 2020 I was flying out of Shenzhen, there were already 15 branches! And now, in 2023 there are already more than 20!
While somewhere in another country is opening one station with heavy efforts, in Shenzhen they are opening a whole line with 30 stations! Just imagine the scale and speed of development! 😎
Everything about the food here was very varied. I tried to cook myself to stay in good shape. But often, during different jobs, we allowed ourselves to go eat at McDonald’s, PizzaHut, drink coffee at Starbucks or at the same McDonald’s. From pure Chinese cuisine we went sometimes to a Muslim restaurant. My favorite dish there was potatoes with vegetables and beef. Sometimes dumplings with soup.
I also want to say about the sea! In Shenzhen, the sea is in the Dameisha area. We often went there just to sunbathe and swim. We chose the beach of the “Sheraton” hotel for ourselves, which we walked through as a hotel visitors and went to the beach itself. A great place to spend time by the sea. Clean and well maintained. And there are few people. Because the Chinese, as a rule, do not swim, but simply come in to wet their feet. Well, there are always a lot of people on the main city beach of Dameisha, but we didn’t go there.
In general, to sum it up, I want to say that Shenzhen is my love! I can proudly wear a T-shirt with the slogan: “I Love Shenzhen”!!! ❤️
